The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dandle \Dan"dle\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dandled; p. pr. & vb. n. Dandling.] [Cf. G. d["a]ndeln to trifly, dandle, OD. & Prov. G. danten, G. tand trifly, prattle; Scot. dandill, dander, to go about idly, to trifly.]
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To move up and down on one's knee or in one's arms, in affectionate play, as an infant.
Ye shall be dandled . . . upon her knees.
--Is.? -
To treat with fondness, as if a child; to fondle; to toy with; to pet.
They have put me in a silk gown and gaudy fool's cap; I as ashamed to be dandled thus.
--Addison.The book, thus dandled into popularity by bishops and good ladies, contained many pieces of nursery eloquence.
--Jeffrey. -
To play with; to put off or delay by trifles; to wheedle.
Captains do so dandle their doings, and dally in the service, as it they would not have the enemy subdued.
--Spenser.
Wiktionary
n. The act by which somebody is dandled. vb. (present participle of dandle English)
Usage examples of "dandling".
From either side the broken half-moon of persons stand gazing at the LITTLE MAN, who sits unhappily dandling the BABY in the centre.
Buddhic cable-knit Harv, dandling his bear on his knee now, calmly asks Kevin Bain if it feels to his Inner Infant like Mommy and Daddy were ever going to appear cribside to meet his needs.
Don Gately as they pass on the crowded street, Don Gately, like pretty much all heterosexual drug addicts, has within a couple blocks mentally wooed, shacked up with, married and had kids by that female, all in the future, all in his head, mentally dandling a young Gately on his mutton-joint knee while this mental Mrs.
From one issue the notes of a piano, which a young lady in ringlets practises six hours daily, to the delight of the fellow-lodgers: at another, lovely Polly, the nurse-maid, may be seen dandling Master Omnium in her arms: whilst Jacob, his papa, is beheld eating prawns, and devouring the Times for breakfast, at the window below.
He approached Blanche Evers, smiling and dandling his body a little, and making her two or three jocular bows.