dandle

1. (transitive) To move up and down on one's knee or in one's arms, in affectionate play, usually said of a child.Examples: "the young mother sat [the infant] upright in her lap, and[…]dandled it with a gloomy indifference."; "You will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees."; "Hands grasped me like a doll, and as I dandled thus between the meretrices of Abaia, I was lifted from my broad-armed chair in the inn of Saltus; yet still, for perhaps a hundred heartbeats more, I could not rid my mind of the sea and its green-haired women."transitive

2. (transitive) To treat with fondness or affection, as if a child; to pet.Examples: "[T]hey have put me in a silk night-gown and gaudy fool's cap, and make me now and then stand in the window with it. I am ashamed to be dandled thus, and cannot look in the glass without blushing to see myself turned into such a pretty little master."; "The book, thus dandled into popularity by bishops and good ladies, contained many pieces of nursery eloquence."Synonyms: pampertransitive

3. (transitive, obsolete) To play with; to wheedle.Examples: "captaines, who notwithstanding that they are specially imployed to make peace thorough strong execution of warre, yet they doe so dandle their doings, and dallie in the service to them committed"obsoletetransitive