dalliance

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A wasting of time in idleness or trifles.

   But, with a gesture, she put a period to this dalliance—one shouldn't palter so on an empty stomach, she might almost have said.

From Middle English daliaunce et al., from dalien (“to exchange pleasantries, to chat; to flirt”), from Old French dalier, dailer. By surface analysis, dally + -ance.

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