dally

verb

1. To waste time in trivial activities, or in idleness; to trifle.

   “I wish, grave governor, 'twere in my power / To favour you; but 'tis my father's cause, / Wherein I may not, nay, I dare not dally.”

   “[…] after we by our presumptuous delays have put off God, and dallied with his grace; […]”

   “[…] we have trifled too long already about a matter of such infinite moment, it is perfect Madness to dally any longer. […]”

2. (ambitransitive)To caress, especially of a sexual nature; to fondle or pet

   “Not dallying with a Brace of Curtizans,”

   “2024, The November Nethack Tournament achievements Dally with a foocubus”

3. To delay unnecessarily; to while away.
4. To wind the lasso rope (ie throw-rope) around the saddle horn (the saddle horn is attached to the pommel of a western style saddle) after the roping of an animal

   “The end of the top rope he dallied around the gooseneck trailer hitch.”

noun

1. Several wraps of rope around the saddle horn, used to stop animals in roping.

   “What matters is now if he tied hard and fast, / Or tumbled his steer with a dally.”

2. (India, alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of dolly (“offering of fruit or flowers”).

   “We have known Mazagon and long-pod Beans to be thrown out of a dally, because they were full of seed!”

3. (New-Zealand, colloquial)A New Zealand person of Croatian or other Balkan descent.

   “The New Zealand wine industry and those who consume the wine it produces owe a huge debt of gratitude to the "Dallies" – the Croatians, and others from that part of eastern Europe who came here in the early 1900s and brought with them a passion for growing, making and drinking wine.”

name

1. A surname.