footle

See also: föotle

English

Etymology

Probably variant of footer (to screw around), from obsolete fouter (an act of sexual intercourse), from French foutre (to have sexual intercourse), from Latin futuere.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: fo͞otəl, IPA(key): /fuːtəl/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -uːtəl

Verb

footle (third-person singular simple present footles, present participle footling, simple past and past participle footled)

  1. To waste time; to trifle.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:loiter
    • 2021 January 28, Sam Knight, “Adam Curtis Explains It All”, in The New Yorker:
      Curtis says that he works like any other journalist: people and ideas grab him; he wastes time on TikTok, which he adores; he footles about in libraries.
  2. To talk nonsense.
    Synonyms: babble, jabber

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

footle (uncountable)

  1. nonsense; foolishness.

Synonyms

Translations

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