dangle
See also: đáng lẽ
English edit
Etymology edit
Uncertain, but likely of North Germanic origin, akin to Danish dingle, dangle, Swedish dangla (“to swing about”), Norwegian dangla, perhaps via North Frisian dangeln;[1] all possibly related to Old Norse dengja (“to hit”).[2]
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
dangle (third-person singular simple present dangles, present participle dangling, simple past and past participle dangled)
- (intransitive) To hang loosely with the ability to swing.
- His feet would dangle in the water.
- 1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
- He'd rather on a gibbet dangle / Than miss his dear delight, to wrangle.
- 1864, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the poem)”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC:
- From her lifted hand / Dangled a length of ribbon.
- 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
- Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.
- (intransitive, slang, ice hockey, lacrosse) The action of performing a move or deke with the puck in order to get past a defender or goalie; perhaps because of the resemblance to dangling the puck on a string.
- He dangled around three players and the goalie to score.
- (transitive) To hang or trail something loosely.
- I like to sit on the edge and dangle my feet in the water.
- (transitive, figurative, by extension) To put forth as a possibility.
- 2020 December 10, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “The first movie inspired by the pandemic is here, and it sucks”, in The Onion AV Club[2]:
- That it happens to have been produced under the imprimatur of Michael Bay dangles the possibility of poor taste, but unfortunately, bombast and conspicuous consumption are nowhere to be found.
- (intransitive, dated) To trail or follow around.
- 1833, Miller's Modern Acting Drama:
- To dangle at the elbow of a wench who can't make up her mind to accept the common title of wife, till she has been courted a certain number of weeks — so the old blinker, her father, says.
- (medicine, intransitive) Of a patient: to be positioned with the legs hanging over the edge of the bed.
- 1976, R. Winifred Heyward Johnson, Douglass W. Johnson, Introduction to Nursing Care, page 139:
- Record the time and duration of dangling, patient's pulse and respirations and patient's general tolerance of the procedure. […] The next step usually in getting the patient out of bed is sitting […]
- 2012, Judith M. Wilkinson, Leslie S. Treas, Pocket Nursing Skills: What You Need to Know Now:
- [P]ivot to bring the patient's legs over the side of the bed. Be Smart! Stay with the patient as he dangles.
- (medicine, transitive) To position (a patient) in this way.
- 2012, Judith M. Wilkinson, Leslie S. Treas, Pocket Nursing Skills: What You Need to Know Now:
- Using proper body mechanics for dangling a patient at the side of the bed.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
hang loosely
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hang or trail something loosely
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Noun edit
dangle (plural dangles)
- An agent of one intelligence agency or group who pretends to be interested in defecting or turning to another intelligence agency or group.
- 2017, Nancy Howell Lee, Peter Dale Scott, Bertram Gross, Forbidden Bookshelf's Resistance in America Collection:
- The example of Oswald will show how the different operations of a dangle and a barium meal would work more efficiently together.
- (slang, ice hockey, lacrosse) The action of dangling; a series of complex stick tricks and fakes in order to defeat the defender in style.
- That was a sick dangle for a great goal!
- A dangling ornament or decoration.
- 1941, Flora Thompson, Over to Candleford:
- So her father wrote to Mrs. Herring, and one day she arrived and turned out to be a little, lean old lady with a dark brown mole on one leathery cheek and wearing a black bonnet decorated with jet dangles, like tiny fishing rods.