Meanings
verbdackle (third-person singular simple present dackles, present participle dackling, simple past and past participle dackled)
present singular third person dackles · participle present dackling · participle past dackled · past dackled
- ScotlandTo slacken pace; to hesitate.
Sometimes we ran, sometimes we gaed; Whiles dackled on the way.
1869, William Knight, Auld yule, and other poems (ed. by W. Lindsay), page 2251 more example
The two kits said 'hi' in the passing and never dackled, just kept going their own way.
1988, British Homing World, page 53
Origin
Compare dacker (“walk slowly”), and perhaps compare German dackeln (“to walk slowly”).
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
dackle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dackle
MLA
“dackle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dackle. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dackle,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dackle.
Source: dackle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.