loll

present singular third person lolls · participle present lolling · participle past lolled · past lolled

1. intransitiveTo act lazily or indolently while reclining; to lean; to lie at ease.First known use mid-14th c.

   Liv's head lolled to the side and rested on his shoulder.

   2015, Mary Davis, chapter 8, in Winning Olivia’s Heart (Heartsong Presents; HP1145), New York, N.Y.: Love Inspired Books, →ISBN, page 104

   2 more examples

   And think'ſt thou, Jove himſelf, with Patience then / Can hear a Pray'r condemn'd by wicked Men? / That, void of Care, he lolls ſupine in State, / And leaves his Bus'neſs to be done by Fate?

   1726, Aulus Persius Flaccus; John Dryden, transl., “The Second Satyr”, in The Satyrs of Aulus Persius Flaccus. Made English by Mr. Dryden, published in The Satyrs of Decimus Junius Juvenalis: And of Aulus Persius Flaccus. Translated into English Verse by Mr. Dryden, and Several Other Eminent Hands. To which is Prefix’d a Discourse concerning the Original and Progress of Satyr, 5th edition, London: Printed for J[acob] Tonson, at Shakespear's Head over-against Catherine-street in the Strand, →OCLC, page 251

   The matter of whether the world needs a fourth Ice Age movie pales beside the question of why there were three before it, but [Ice Age:] Continental Drift feels less like an extension of a theatrical franchise than an episode of a middling TV cartoon, lolling around on territory that’s already been settled.

   2012 July 12, Sam Adams, “Ice Age: Continental Drift”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 25 Mar 2014

   Synonyms: relax, slack, slacken

2. intransitiveTo hang extended from the mouth, like the tongue of an animal heated from exertion.First known use 1610s

   Crouching on its stomach, the dog moved with him, teeth glittering, tongue lolling.

   1975, Susan Cooper, “Cadfan’s Way”, in The Grey King (The Dark Is Rising Sequence; 4), London: Chatto & Windus, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Simon Pulse, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, May 2007, →ISBN, part 1 (The Golden Harp), page 21

   1 more example

   Nor thy reſiſtleſs Arm the Bull withſtood: / Nor He the roaring Terror of the Wood. / The triple Porter of the Stygian seat, / With lolling Tongue, lay fawning at thy Feet: / And, ſeiz'd with Fear, forgot his mangled Meat.

   1697, Virgil, “The Eighth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, pages 445–446, lines 396–400

3. ambitransitiveTo let (the tongue) hang from the mouth.

   The ox stood lolling in the furrow.

   2 more examples

   The combatants with rage most horrible Strove, and their eyes started with cracking stare, And impotent their tongues they lolled into the air, Flaccid and foamy, like a mad dog’s hanging; […]

   1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 267

   [W]hen he saw the hundreds of heads of cattle lolling their greedy way through his grass, he ran towards them wildly, waving his arms, screaming.

   2011 September, Anna Solomon, chapter 30, in The Little Bride: A Novel, trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Riverhead Books, →ISBN, page 307