- Stop dilly-dallying and start working on your assignment.
dilly-dally
verb; sound symbolism
Procrastinating; avoidance of a task by performing silly tasks. "Dilly-dally" can be considered sound symbolism because it sounds sort of like "dawdle", which has a similar meaning. To me, "dilly-dally" reminds me of "silly" which could be the way one is acting as they are dilly-dallying.
Etymology : To dilly-dally sounds like doing a useless task or acting silly. Possibly stemmed from “dally”, a verb meaning to waste time. “Dally” is a form of the word “dalier” originating in Old French.
Source : mother
Last modified: 10 June 2008