different between dawdle vs slump

English

Etymology

First attested around 1656; variant of daddle (“to walk unsteadily”), perhaps influenced by daw, since the bird was regarded as sluggish and silly. Not in general use until around 1775. Compare also German daddeln (“to play”), German verdaddeln (“to waste (time), neglect, ruin”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?d??d?l/
• Rhymes: -??d?l
• Homophone: doddle (in accents with the cot-caught merger)

Verb

dawdle (third-person singular simple present dawdles, present participle dawdling, simple past and past participle dawdled)

1. (intransitive) To spend time idly and unfruitfully; to waste time.
2. (transitive) To spend (time) without haste or purpose.

3. (intransitive) To move or walk lackadaisically.

Translations

See also

• dally, dander, dandle, diddle, loaf, piddle, wander, doodle

Noun

dawdle (plural dawdles)

1. A dawdler.
   • 1766, George Colman the Elder and David Garrick, The Clandestine Marriage, Act I, page 13

     Where is this dawdle of a housekeeper?

2. A slow walk, journey.
3. An easily accomplished task; a doddle.

Anagrams

• Dewald, Waddle, dwaled, waddle, walded

English

Etymology

Probably of North Germanic origin: compare Danish slumpe (“to stumble upon by chance”), Norwegian slumpe (“happen by chance”), Swedish slumpa (“to sell off”). Compare also German schlumpen (“to trail; draggle; be sloppy”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sl?mp/
• Rhymes: -?mp

Verb

slump (third-person singular simple present slumps, present participle slumping, simple past and past participle slumped)

1. (intransitive) To collapse heavily or helplessly.

   • “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”

2. (intransitive) To decline or fall off in activity or performance.
3. (intransitive) To slouch or droop.
4. (transitive) To lump; to throw together messily.

   • These different groups […] are exclusively slumped together under that sense.

5. To fall or sink suddenly through or in, when walking on a surface, as on thawing snow or ice, a bog, etc.
   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Danger and Mischief of Delaying Repentance (sermon)

     The latter walk on a bottomless quag, into which unawares they may slump.

6. (slang) (transitive) To cause to collapse; to hit hard; to render unsconscious; to kill.

Translations

Noun

slump (plural slumps)

1. A heavy or helpless collapse; a slouching or drooping posture; a period of poor activity or performance, especially an extended period.
   1. (slang by extension) A period when a person goes without the expected amount of sex or dating.
      • 2004, Jonathan Tolins, The Last Sunday in June

        TOM. We haven't had sex with each other in five months.

        MICHAEL. We're in a slump, I know that."

2. A measure of the fluidity of freshly mixed concrete, based on how much the concrete formed in a standard slump cone sags when the cone is removed.
3. (Britain, dialect) A boggy place.
4. (Scotland) The noise made by anything falling into a hole, or into a soft, miry place.
5. (Scotland) The gross amount; the mass; the lump.

Derived terms

• slumplike

Translations

Anagrams

• Plums, lumps, plums

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From the verb slumpa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sl?mp/

Noun

slump m (definite singular slumpen, indefinite plural slumpar, definite plural slumpane)

1. random event, chance, happenstance

   Eg valde han ut på slump.

   I picked it randomly.

2. a good amount, quite a bit

   Eg vann ein god slump pengar i går.

   I won quite a bit of money yesterday.

Verb

slump

1. imperative of slumpa

Further reading

• “slump” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Spanish

Noun

slump m (plural slumps)

1. slump (decline)

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

slump c

1. chance, happenstance

Declension

Derived terms

• slumpartikel

Related terms

• slumpvariabel
• slumpa