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The act of dallying, trifling, or fondling; interchange of caresses; wanton play. Look thou be true, do not give dalliance Too mnch the rein. Shak. O, the dalliance and the wit, The flattery and the strifeTennyson.

One Who fondles; a trifler; as, dalliers with pleasant words. Asham.

To interchange caresses, especially with one of the opposite sex; to use fondling; to wanton; to sport. Not dallying with a brace of courtesans. Shak. Our aerie . . . dallies with the wind. Shak.

To treat with fondness, as if a child; to fondle; to toy with; to pet. They have put me in a silk gown and gaudy fool's cap; I as ashamed to be dandled thus. Addison. The book, thus dandled into popularity by bishops and good ladies, contained many pieces of nursery eloquence. Jeffrey.

One who dandles or fondles.

Fondness; preciousness; love; tenderness. The dearness of friendship. Bacon.

which is falsely or delusively believed or propagated; false belief; error in belief. And fondly mourned the dear delusion gone. Prior.

ffensive; disapprobation; repugnance; displeasure; disfavor; -- the opposite of liking or fondness. God's grace . . . gives him continual dislike to sin. Hammond. The hint malevolent, the look oblique, The obvious satire, or implied dislike. Hannah More. We have spoken of the dislike of these excellent women for Sherid…

Relating to disquisition; fond discussion or investigation; examining; inquisitive.

Excessive fondness; weak and foolish affection. The dotage of the nation on presbytery. Bp. Burnet.

To be excessively or foolishly fond; to love to excess; to be weakly affectionate; -- with on or upon; as, the mother dotes on her child. Sing, siren, for thyself, and I will dote. Shak. What dust we dote on, when 't is man we love. Pope.

One excessively fond, or weak in love. Shak.

That dotes; silly; excessively fond. -- Dot"ing*ly, adv. -- Dot"ing*ness, n.

een in the masculine character after childhood or early youth, was shown in the General's fondness for the sight and fragrance of flowers. Hawthorne.

escaping or evading; eluding the grasp; fallacious. Elusive of the bridal day, she gives Fond hopes to all, and all with hopes deceives. Pope. -- E*lu"sive*ly, adv. -- E*lu"sive*ness, n.

that these encase the germs of all future living things, inclosed one within another. Buffon.

Disposed to embrace; fond of caressing. [R.] Thackeray.

To kiss; especially, to kiss repeatedly or fondly. [Obs.]

The style or cut of a type or font of type.

To fondle; to dandle. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.