Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who dallies; one who trifles; a trifler.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who fondles; a trifler.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who dallies; a procrastinator.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun someone who wastes time

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

dally +‎ -er

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Examples

  • I used to go by hours, but I've found that I'm a dallier.

    Exchange Rates Ulysses 2009

  • His is a prose that almost palpably exudes probity and decency (a very Orwellian word, that), while his political trajectory - from disaffected Etonian schoolboy, to disaffected imperial policeman, to disaffected dallier in the pays-bas of the Depression, to convinced socialist warrior, to disaffected socialist and anti-communist whistle-blower - also speaks to us of a probity and decency, which all too often seems absent from our mercenary, venal and debauched age.

    Jura Duty 2007

  • Now is Charles Pender thinking of leaping to provincial politics this fall, alongside former Reform/Alliance-dallier and former Liberal candidate wannabe Steve Kent and how many other municipal councillors and mayors eager for an MHAs salary?

    SOL, Day 8: More money from Ottawa Ed Hollett 2007

  • Unfortunately, Carmine is a world class dilly-dallier.

    Archive 2006-03-01 fusenumber8 2006

  • "Well, as you can see, the story will be that Pan Xo, despondent over the loss of his illicit lover to the arms of another man, took his own life by slashing open his own veins, but not before dispatching his lover and her dallier in a more, shall we say, dramatic fashion."

    Asimov's Science Fiction 2004

  • U.S. S.nate cloakroom wags say he's far from being the most dedicatedly demonic Democrat dallier.

    American Tabloid Ellroy, James, 1948- 1995

  • That was one of the reasons Wolfe stuck to Parker; he was no dilly-dallier.

    Triple Jeopardy Stout, Rex, 1886-1975 1951

  • That was one of the reasons Wolfe stuck to Parker; he was no dilly-dallier.

    Triple Jeopardy Stout, Rex, 1886-1975 1951

  • Finally the last dallier had his say, and, after an exchange of cordial good nights, departed.

    A Pirate of Parts Richard Neville

  • When an evil attains this extent, he is a poor citizen, a poor cowardly dallier with opinions, whatever his fighting mark may be, who can make up his mind to calmly acquiesce in establishing its permanence, or to stiffly oppose every movement and every suggestion tending in the least towards its abrogation.

    The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, April, 1862 Devoted To Literature And National Policy Various

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