footle — ► VERB chiefly Brit. ▪ engage in fruitless activity; mess about. ORIGIN perhaps from FOOTER(Cf. ↑footer) … English terms dictionary
footle — [fo͞ot′ l, foot′ l] vi. footled, footling [altered (prob. after FUTILE) < dial. footer, to trifle < Fr foutre, orig., to copulate with < L futuere < IE * bhaut < base * bhau > BEAT] [Informal, Chiefly Brit.] to act or talk… … English World dictionary
footle — UK [ˈfuːt(ə)l] / US [ˈfut(ə)l] verb [intransitive] Word forms footle : present tense I/you/we/they footle he/she/it footles present participle footling past tense footled past participle footled informal to waste time doing things that are not… … English dictionary
footle — intransitive verb (footled; footling) Etymology: probably alteration of footer to waste time Date: 1892 1. to talk or act foolishly 2. to waste time ; trifle, fool • footle noun • footler noun … New Collegiate Dictionary
footle — foo|tle [ futl ] verb intransitive INFORMAL footle around/about to waste time doing things that are not important or necessary … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
footle — To briefly investigate or examine. From archaeology, when a trowel is used to quickly dig a small portion of a deposit to determine its nature and likely origin I don t know if this is a refuse pit or not. Let me just have a quick footle … Dictionary of american slang
footle — To briefly investigate or examine. From archaeology, when a trowel is used to quickly dig a small portion of a deposit to determine its nature and likely origin I don t know if this is a refuse pit or not. Let me just have a quick footle … Dictionary of american slang
footle — verb footle around/about to waste time doing unimportant things when you should be working … Longman dictionary of contemporary English
footle about — verb To pass time doing unimportant things; messing around. Syn: footle around, mess around, mess about … Wiktionary
footle away — verb To waste time. Syn: footle about … Wiktionary