to piddle away
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
malgastar
- She tends to piddle away the afternoon browsing social media instead of studying.
Examples
-
Don't piddle away your precious hours; start working on your project now.
-
If you keep piddling away your weekends watching TV, you won't achieve your goals.
-
I stood at the door for ten minutes with my jacket on and watched my son piddle away his time.
Blog text (21)
Synonyms
888
1.5
Spend time without any activity
728
1.6
To spend time doing things that are not useful instead of doing something more useful
350
1.1
To spend time sitting and doing very little without a clear purpose
43
3.7
To spend time doing nothing useful
17
5.0
Move or act slowly and waste time, causing delay
7
6.2
To spend time doing little or nothing instead of working
6
7.2
To waste time by doing small unimportant things
5
3.8
To relax and do very little
4
6.0
Waste time or money on small unimportant things
4
5.8
To do nothing while you wait for something to happen
4
6.8
To waste small amounts of time, money, or energy little by little
4
7.3
Waste time by acting silly instead of working
3
7.9
Spend time doing very little or nothing
3
8.4
To spend time doing not important things in a relaxed way
2
9.9
To sit and do nothing instead of working
2
7.7
To spend time doing nothing useful
2
8.6
To spend time doing very little and moving around without plans
2
7.9
To waste time and effort without making progress
1
8.7
To waste time doing small unimportant things
1
8.7
To spend time doing things that are not important
1
9.2
To spend time doing small unimportant things instead of working
1
7.7
To spend time doing nothing and not working
1
4.4
To spend time doing very little and relaxing
1
3.4
To spend time lazily doing little or nothing
1
6.5
To spend time doing nothing in a lazy way
1
9.9
To waste time doing silly or lazy things instead of useful work
1
9.9
To waste time instead of doing something useful
1
9.9
To waste time instead of doing something useful
1
6.5
To move around slowly doing small jobs in no hurry
1
9.9
To waste time doing unimportant or silly things instead of doing something important
To spend time doing small unimportant things with no real plan
To spend time on things that are not useful
To waste time, money, or chances on things that do not matter
To spend time idly on unimportant things
To waste time doing small, unimportant things
To waste time on small unimportant things
To waste time instead of doing something useful
To waste time instead of working
To pass time by doing something not useful while you wait
To waste time on busy work and make no progress
Antonyms
How Wasteful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb 'piddle' already denotes passing time idly or wasting, and the particle 'away' adds a sense of continued or dissipating action; together they directly yield the meaning 'to waste time or resources'. This is a regular verb + away composition found across English and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
The phrasal verb piddle away comes from the idea of piddle, meaning small, unimportant actions or dribbling like tiny drops, plus away, showing something is used up. Imagine minutes leaking out in little bits while you do nothing useful; that's why piddle away means 'to waste time or resources'.