dandle

Ropes dandle like a makeshift cape against her back.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2023

Buy your house and invite your mother-in-law over to dandle the grandkids on her knees as much as she likes, but don’t ask them to move in with you.

From Slate ● Jan. 27, 2016

And as I recline next to Lillian Hellman, I dandle Miss Kathie's adopted baby on my knee.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 26, 2010

Queen Min used to dandle him on her royal knee.

From Time Magazine Archive

She turns that into a tune: “A moth-er, a broth-er, a fath-er. A doodle, a dandle, a candle.”

From "The Unfinished Angel" by Sharon Creech

The stately U.S. elm, which inspires the weekend artist and dandles the infant oriole, is in worse danger than ever.

From Time Magazine Archive

That mother, whose spirit in fetters is bound, While she dandles the babe in her arms to the sound.

From Sketch of Handel and Beethoven Two Lectures, Delivered in the Lecture Hall of the Wimbledon Village Club, on Monday Evening, Dec. 14, 1863; and Monday Evening, Jan. 11, 1864 by Thomas Hanly Ball

The more complaisant chestnut dandles its sticky knobs.

From Prose Fancies by Richard Le Gallienne

He has no pipe, and he talks kindly to his wife, and dandles his son on his knee.

From Highways and Byways in Surrey by Hugh Thomson

He is never himself till he has discovered or invented a hero; and, when he has got him, he tosses and dandles him as a mother her babe.

From Obiter Dicta by Augustine Birrell

David Jordan, 53, of Northwest Washington, dandled his 6-month-old son on his lap as the rest of his family played on a blanket.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 20, 2022

Angie dandled our infant daughter off to the side of the kitchen while we pretended to cook something for the camera.

From The Guardian ● Nov. 25, 2017

Ms. Cruz, 24, dandled the baby, Brandon, and offered juice.

From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2012

And then we see Walt’s baby Holly, in a pink hat with cat’s ears, being dandled on Hank’s knee.

From Slate ● Aug. 13, 2012

I told her how I often recalled Sunday mornings at home when I dandled her on my knee while Mum was in the kitchen making a roast.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

Recording the old popular tune “I Don’t Know Why” in 1950, for his outstanding Columbia Records debut, Garner’s fingers lick at the keys and he drags the melody along, dandling it, relishing it.

From New York Times ● Mar. 1, 2023

And those who know Farage well understand his very human reluctance to see someone else dandling his baby on their knee.

From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2019

Som was on the cellphone with their older daughter, who was away at school; Niang, a teacher, was dandling their 7-month-old baby, their third child.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 23, 2015

He also moved back into the house without discussing it first with Skyler, then presented Scarface, with baby dandling on his knee, as fond family entertainment.

From Slate ● Jul. 30, 2012

Then we sat on a stone, dandling our feet in the water and enjoying each other’s company as we rested.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss