lallygag

plural lallygags · alternative lollygag

1. countableuncountableHorseplay, fooling around.

   Mr. Biggs paused and turned the flesh of the succulent lobster over with his finger. The gentleman inside addressed him: ‘Try er lobstaw, bossy?’ ‘Ain't got no money,’ said Mr. Biggs, still fingering the morsels. ‘Oh, come now, none o' that ere lallygag,’ responded the gentleman.

   1862 August, Harper's Magazine

2. countableuncountableA layabout, one who lallygags.

   ["]Why, you ought to have been ready half an hour ago!" she said, pushing him into his room fondly. "You're a lackadaisical lallygag, that's what you are! Do you realize how much you've got to do to-day, Mr. Bonistelle?"

   1913, Gelett Burgess, Love in a Hurry, Bobbs-Merrill Company, page 8

   Synonyms: lollygagger, bum, couch potato, dawdler, deadbeat, dogfucker, do-naught, do-nothing

present singular third person lallygags · participle present lallygagging · participle past lallygagged · past lallygagged · alternative lollygag

1. To dawdle; to be lazy or idle; to avoid necessary work or effort.

   And don't you dare to lallygag about so that you don't get home till after dark, or I'll have every policeman in Parañaque out after you! Now, take care of yourselves, all of you.

   1955, Agnes Newton Keith, Bare Feet in the Palace, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, page 125

2. USarchaicTo pet, kiss, or otherwise demonstrate overt affection, generally in public.

   Kissing is a game that should always be played in private. Those who must lallygag or perish should pull down the blinds.

   1898, William Cowper Brann, The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast, page 257

   1 more example

   "She's goin' to wait fer us down to Rothschild's bridge. 'N' her 'n' me 's goin' to set on the back seat together—" / "'N' lallygag," interrupted his mother. […] / "Oh, we allus lallygag when we git together, me 'n' Cynthy does." […]

   1894, Frederick Thickstun Clark, On Cloud Mountain: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper and Brothers, page 115