One way to hold dally: someone who should be moving on is still standing where they are, letting the time go by . Nothing is being finished. The clock keeps running, and the person is fine with that. Whether that looks bad or harmless depends only on what is waiting to be done — a decision, a road, or another person.
From the word’s history
Dally came into English from Anglo-Norman delaier through Middle English dalien, which makes it a doublet of delay. The two words are the same old word that grew in two directions: delay kept the plain meaning, and dally kept the picture of time being let go.
dally 從盎格魯諾曼語的 delaier、經中古英語 dalien 進到英文,和 delay 是同一個源頭長出來的一對字。兩個字後來走了不同方向:delay 留下了乾淨的「延後」,dally 留下了「讓時間慢慢溜掉」的那個畫面。
Wiktionary, "dally"
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原始詞典資料8 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,摘錄並精簡格式,我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的;有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
Dallyname詞源 1
- 1
A surname.
Dallynoun詞源 2
- 1
A New Zealand person of Croatian or other Balkan descent.
- The New Zealand wine industry and those who consume the wine it produces owe a huge debt of gratitude to the "Dallies" – the Croatians, and others from that part of eastern Europe who came here in the early 1900s and brought with them a passion for growing, making and drinking wine.
dallyverb詞源 1/ˈdæli/
- 1
To waste time in trivial activities, or in idleness; to trifle.
- I wish, grave governor, 'twere in my power / To favour you; but 'tis my father's cause, / Wherein I may not, nay, I dare not dally.
- […] after we by our presumptuous delays have put off God, and dallied with his grace; […]
- 2
To caress, especially of a sexual nature; to fondle or pet
- Not dallying with a Brace of Curtizans, / But meditating with two deepe Diuines:
- Mr Dombey in the meantime stood bolt upright in the carriage like a highly respectable ghost, looking on too; while Cleopatra and the Major dallied as two ancient doves might do.
- 3
To delay unnecessarily; to while away.
dallynoun詞源 2/ˈdæli/
- 1
Several wraps of rope around the saddle horn, used to stop animals in roping.
- What matters is now if he tied hard and fast, / Or tumbled his steer with a dally.
dallyverb詞源 2/ˈdæli/
- 1
To wind the lasso rope (ie throw-rope) around the saddle horn (the saddle horn is attached to the pommel of a western style saddle) after the roping of an animal
- The end of the top rope he dallied around the gooseneck trailer hitch.
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形:
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary,已精簡格式;依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用,改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。