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.

「dally」可以想成這樣一個畫面:該往前走的人還停在原地,讓時間輕鬆地過去。事情沒有完成。時鐘一直在走,而那個人不太在意。這個畫面看起來是惱人還是無傷大雅,只看「等著被完成的是什麼」——一個決定、一段路,還是另一個人。

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"

登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。

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。