footle

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.

• enPR: fo͞otəl, IPA^(key): /fuːtəl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːtəl

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

footle (uncountable)

1. nonsense; foolishness.

• See Thesaurus:nonsense