Dawdle example sentences

Related (9): linger, loiter, dally, procrastinate, delay, stall, lag, tarry, idle

"Dawdle" Example Sentences

  1. Stop dawdle and get ready — we're going to be late.
  2. He tends to dawdle in the morning, which drives his wife absolutely crazy.
  3. I watched her dawdle through the museum, stopping at every single painting.
  4. Don't dawdle on your way home from school; come straight back.
  5. She'd dawdle at the coffee shop for hours, pretending to work but really just people-watching.
  6. My father would dawdle over breakfast, reading the paper while everyone else rushed around.
  7. If you dawdle any longer, we'll miss the entire first act.
  8. Kids always dawdle when you're in a hurry — it's like they know.
  9. He started to dawdle near the exit, clearly not wanting to leave the party.
  10. I dawdle sometimes because I'm anxious about what comes next.
  11. They dawdle so much that we ended up arriving an hour late.
  12. She doesn't dawdle — she's always three steps ahead of everyone else.
  13. When I'm nervous, I tend to dawdle and reorganize things that don't need reorganizing.
  14. He'd dawdle at the store, picking up items and putting them back.
  15. You can't dawdle in this job; clients expect immediate responses.
  16. I noticed him dawdle by the door, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't.
  17. My sister will dawdle in the shower for forty-five minutes if you let her.
  18. We don't have time to dawdle — the deadline is tomorrow.
  19. She began to dawdle once she realized nobody was actually watching her.
  20. I used to dawdle on my commute, taking the long way just to clear my head.
  21. He'd dawdle through conversations, never quite getting to the point.
  22. Don't dawdle with that decision — it needs to be made today.
  23. The whole team started to dawdle after the boss left for the day.
  24. I catch myself dawdle when I'm avoiding something difficult.
  25. She won't dawdle if there's food involved — she moves fast then.
  26. They dawdle so much that the project took twice as long as planned.
  27. I watched him dawdle at the counter, pretending to look at the menu.
  28. You can dawdle all you want on weekends, but not on work days.
  29. She'd dawdle in the hallway, hoping to run into him again.
  30. He tends to dawdle when he's thinking through a problem.

Common Phrases

  1. dawdle away
  2. dawdle over
  3. don't dawdle
  4. dawdle along
  5. dawdle around

Examples by Level

A1
  1. Don't dawdle — we must go now.
  2. She dawdle in the morning every day.
A2
  1. He dawdle at breakfast and made us late for school.
  2. If you dawdle too much, you'll miss the bus.
B1
  1. I noticed him dawdle by the window, clearly avoiding the conversation.
  2. She tends to dawdle when she's anxious about something.
B2
  1. He'd begun to dawdle through his responsibilities, and nobody seemed to notice or care.
  2. There's something almost defiant about the way teenagers dawdle when they're told to hurry.
C1
  1. What appeared to be a simple tendency to dawdle masked a deeper resistance to authority.
  2. She understood that to dawdle was, in some small way, to reclaim control over her own time.
C2
  1. In those final moments before the decision, he allowed himself to dawdle — not from indecision, but from a quiet refusal to accept what came next.
  2. The art of knowing when to dawdle and when to act with purpose separates the wise from the merely efficient.

Examples by Scenario

🏠 Everyday Life
  1. My kid will dawdle getting dressed no matter how many times I tell her we're late.
  2. I dawdle on my walk to work sometimes, just to avoid sitting at my desk.
💼 Workplace
  1. He tends to dawdle during meetings, which drives the whole team crazy.
  2. Nobody dawdle when the boss is watching, but the moment she leaves, everyone slows down.
📊 Business
  1. We can't afford to dawdle on this contract — the competition is already moving.
  2. The client started to dawdle on the final decision, which cost us two weeks.
🛒 Buying / Shopping
  1. I always dawdle in the grocery store because I can never remember what I actually need.
  2. She'll dawdle at the checkout, reading magazines while the line builds up behind her.
✈️ Travel
  1. We had to dawdle through the airport because our flight was delayed anyway.
  2. Don't dawdle at the hotel — the tour bus leaves in twenty minutes.
📚 Education
  1. Students dawdle on assignments until the night before they're due.
  2. The teacher noticed him dawdle over his test, clearly not prepared.
❤️ Relationships
  1. He would dawdle leaving after our fights, as if staying longer might fix things.
  2. We used to dawdle in bed on Sunday mornings, talking about nothing important.
📰 News / Politics
  1. The government continues to dawdle on climate policy while the crisis worsens.
  2. Critics argue that the administration has begun to dawdle on key reforms.
💻 Technology
  1. The app loads so slowly that users dawdle and eventually give up.
  2. I dawdle scrolling through social media when I should be working.
📝 Formal Writing
  1. The committee should not dawdle in its review of the proposed legislation.
  2. Institutions that dawdle in adopting new technologies risk falling behind their competitors.

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