MEANING
To bounce a small child gently on your knee or in your arms while playing.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- dandle a baby
- dandle a child on one's knee
On the page
He dandled his daughter on his knee while she reached for his watch.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- dandle
- Past tense
- dandled
- Past participle
- dandled
- Present participle
- dandling
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- dandle
- Present continuous
- am/is/are dandling
- Present perfect
- have/has dandled
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been dandling
- Past
- dandled
- Past continuous
- was/were dandling
- Past perfect
- had dandled
- Past perfect continuous
- had been dandling
- Future
- will dandle
- Future continuous
- will be dandling
- Future perfect
- will have dandled
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been dandling
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: literary / elevated prose. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: dandle; dandles; dandled; dandled; dandling Commonness: uncommon (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: Affectionate up-and-down play, not rough shaking; Cambridge and MW agree on transitive grammar. Writing functions: precise action, characterization. Third-person singular: dandles.
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