James J. Cudney IV

365 Challenge: Day 261 – Dawdle

Dawdle: waste time; be slow; idle

awdle.png

 

For the most part, I do not dawdle. I have way too many things going on, and if I did, I’m certain my ‘To Do List’ would get revenge on me. It prefers not to go in excess of ten things that must be achieved, and if by five o’clock each day, the count is closer to double digits than zero, I might not make it through the night. Yet I seem to find myself dawdling this week over completing Father Figure! I planned to work on it four days this week, one of which was yesterday. While I completed 1/3 of the read aloud, I ignored writing the three additional scenes that are necessary before I can send it off to beta readers. I’m determined to complete them today, but I feel another dawdle coming on…

It’s a rather interesting word, isn’t it? I must give credit to a wonderful friend who shall remain nameless (unless she chooses to respond to this message) who suggested this as a potential word to consider for the 365 Daily Challenge. None of you have met or talked with this particular person, as she’s a friend I’ve known for about a decade outside of this site; however, she does read the blog and comments privately each week on something. She knows me well and finds the right way to connect on a variety of levels. She’s not a blogger or author, but reads a lot — she’s also provided lots of feedback into my novels. If you’ve enjoyed them, then she’s someone to thank too (just my way of embarrassing her a tiny bit without it being public).

The biggest thing that comes to mind with the word dawdle is the multitude of odd synonyms: lollygag, dilly dally, straggle, shilly-shally… the list goes on and on! My pre-school’s name was Dilly Dally. As a child, I loved it. Today, I wonder why on earth  you’d name a school something that is a word with more negative than positive associations? The other funny thing about these words is the repetition of double letters, or the high count of the letters ‘d’ or ‘g’ or ‘l’ in them. I suppose I should look this up… I suppose I should have looked this up before writing the post. But I’m learning a lesson here. If I looked them up, I’d be dawdling and subsequently avoiding writing those 3 scenes. And that’s just what I’m going to do right now: write those scenes, I mean. You thought I was gonna look up dawdle, didn’t you? Nope, I’m lazy today.

Do you know any other words for dawdle?

Any funny stories about dawdling?

Familiar with the origination of this word?

 

About Me & the “365 Daily Challenge”

I’m Jay, an author who lives in NYC. My debut novel, Watching Glass Shatter, can be purchased on Amazon @ http://mybook.to/WGS. I’ve always been a reader. And now I’m a daily blogger. I decided to start my own version of the “365 Daily Challenge” where since March 13, 2017, I’ve posted a characteristic either I currently embody or one I’d like to embody in the future. 365 days of reflection to discover who I am and what I want out of life.

The goal: Knowledge. Acceptance. Understanding. Optimization. Happiness. Help. For myself. For others. And if all else fails, humor. When I’m finished in one year, I hope to have more answers about the future and what I will do with the remainder of my life. All aspects to be considered. It’s not just about a career, hobbies, residence, activities, efforts, et al. It’s meant to be a comprehensive study and reflection from an ordinary man. Not a doctor. Not a therapist. Not a friend. Not an encyclopedia full of prior research. Just pure thought, a blogged journal with true honesty.

Join the fun and read a new post each day, or check out my book reviews, TV/Film reviews or favorite vacation spots. And feel free to like, rate, comment or take the poll for each post. Note: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators.

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39 comments

  9. I think your definition of dawdle and the rest of the world’s definition are two different things. You may not have done exactly what you set out to do but you still achieved an awful lot. It’s not like you were sat staring at Netflix all day ignoring your To Do list entirely! That would have qualified as dawdling.
    My favourite alternative words for dawdle are goof off (that’s my fun one) and procrastinate (I use this one all the time, it’s a favourite word).

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  10. Dilly Dally is perfect for a preschool because that’s exactly what that age does! They are so inquisitive that it takes them forever to get from place to place because they literally stop to smell the roses! We should all be like that once in a while. Dawdle is one of those cool words to say. Nice one, Jay.

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  11. I don’t like it when I dawdle, but I still do it. A similar word I like is “putter” as in “to putter around the garden.” Definition: to move or act aimlessly or idly.

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  12. Well, James, you had me laughing pretty hard with this digression of dawdling dilly-dally.
    Up on the mountain we lollygagged, but now we just do what we want to do, and acquaint ourselves with old age. I try not to procrastinate, but well…
    Actually, I got 29 of the photo genealogy books sent off to family members today. Feeling pretty virtuous now. Took time to read a few blogs (including yours) and enjoyed myself.

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  15. I liked when Mrs. Patmore in Downton Abbey used the word dawdle. She said “don’t dawdle” when the cooking staff needed to get a big dinner ready for upstairs. I hadn’t heard that word in forever and I liked hearing it.

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