Dawdle, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Dawdled; p. pr. & vb. n. Dawdling.] — Webster enters it under “dawdle”
Etymology: [Cf. Daddle.]
To waste time in trifling employment; to trifle; to saunter. Come some evening and dawdle over a dish of tea with me. Johnson. We . . . dawdle up and down Pall Mall. Thackeray.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Dawdle, v. t.
To waste by trifling; as, to dawdle away a whole morning.
Dawdle, n.
A dawdler. Colman & Carrick.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for dawdling; he lists it under slow.
He lists it without comment; the entries above explain its neighbors.