Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
[ad_1] verb (used with or without object), doo·dled, doo·dling.
- to draw or scribble idly: He doodled during the whole lecture.
- to waste (time) in aimless or foolish activity.
- Dialect. to deceive; cheat.
noun
- a design, figure, or the like, made by idle scribbling.
- Archaic. a foolish or silly person.
verb
- to scribble or draw aimlessly
- to play or improvise idly
- (intr often foll by away) US to dawdle or waste time
noun
- a shape, picture, etc, drawn aimlessly
“scrawl aimlessly,” 1935, from dialectal doodle, dudle “fritter away time, trifle,” or associated with dawdle. It was a noun meaning “simple fellow” from 1620s.
LONGFELLOW: That’s a name we made up back home for people who make foolish designs on paper when they’re thinking. It’s called doodling. Almost everybody’s a doodler. Did you ever see a scratch pad in a telephone booth? People draw the most idiotic pictures when they’re thinking. Dr. Von Holler, here, could probably think up a long name for it, because he doodles all the time. [“Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” screenplay by Robert Riskin, 1936; based on “Opera Hat,” serialized in “American Magazine” beginning May 1935, by Clarence Aldington Kelland]
Related: Doodled; Doodling.
Doodle Sack. A bagpipe. Dutch. — Also the private parts of a woman. [“Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue,” 1796]