Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to fool around, to kiss and cuddle; thus lollygagger n.

1868		Northern Vindicator 30 Dec. n.p.: The lascivious, lolly-gagging lumps of licentiousness who disgrace the common decencies of life by their love-sick fawnings at our public dances [DA].
1871		L.H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 45: Lalligag, to fool about.
1871		Ariz. Citizen (Tucson, AZ) 28 Oct. 2/1: The embraces of Agent Piper with Cochise seems to have [...] so disgusted his braves that they preferred war to such ‘lallygagging’.
1882		Democratic Northwest (Napoleon, OH) 30 Mar. 1/2: The silk arrayed and diamond decked parrot miss with who you were lollygagging.
1883		G.W. Peck Peck’s Bad Boy and His Pa (1887) 56: I told Ma it was a shame for so many people to be sitting around lally-gagging right before folks, and she said it was disgustin.
1893		Nat. Trib. (DC) 22 June 7/1: Yis, move out with your lallygagging.
1894		Guthrie Dly (OK) 28 Jan. 3/2: There was a Republican love feast at the city hall [...] the way the advocates [...] lolly-gagged and entwined their arms about each other’s neck was a caution.
1902		Jennings Dly Record (LA) 28 Nov. n.p.: Well, sir, you never saw such lolly-gagging [...] Billy waas clean daft and when the little girl came we all thought he would go bug-house.
1906		O.W. Hanley ‘Dialect Words From Southern Indiana’ in DN III:ii 120: lollygog, v. Used with disgust for expression of affection in a too public way, especially of kissing. ‘They lollygog around before people like two fools.’.
1904		St Louis Republican (MO) 13 Nov. 75/5: The leaves are turning yellow / The proch’s charm has died / And Glayds and her fellow / Now lallygag insided.
1907		Carr & Chase ‘Word-List From Eastern Maine’ in DN III:iii 246: lalligag, v. To make love in a silly and demonstrative manner. ‘It’s getting down to business when a couple begin to lalligag’.
1911		L. Pound ‘A Second Word-List From Nebraska’ in DN III:vii 545: lollygag, v. To be effusive in the expression of affection. ‘Oh, please stop lollygagging’. Also a noun, lollygagger ‘She’s a regular lollygagger.’.
1914		El Paso Herald (TX) 1 June 4/6: Miss Flax, who had stopped to lallygag came back 15 minutes later.
1918		Tacoma Times (WA) 11 May 4/1: When the man called on his elderly [...] sweetheart, she would climb upon his lap to lollygag.
1922		Appleton Post-Crescent (WI) 8 May 11/1: Flapper Dictionary lollygagger – A Bell-Polisher addicted to hallway spooning.
1928		R. Carr Rampant Age 222: They lollygagged about in the Collegiate booths.
1932		V. Randolph ‘The Saga of Little Ab Yancey’ in Botkin Folk-Say 236: He run up t’ th’ woman an’ began a-huggin’ an’ a-kissin’ an’ a-lallygaggin’.
1933		Nicholson & Robinson Sailor Beware! II ii: He won’t try anything practical. No! He wants to go on lally-gaggin’.
1938		Dly Atheneum in McGill Dly 19 Dec. 4: Hugging and kissing [...] Lollygagging, necking, pitching honey, smooching, tonsil swabbing, pawing, muzzling, flinging woo and rotten logging are other names applied to the same activity.
1947		D.W. Hamilton ‘Pacific War Lang.’ in AS XXII:1 Feb. 55: lollygagging. Necking or intercourse.
1949		Journal of Amer. Folklore Jan.–Mar. 63: ‘Lally-gaggin’’ was Grandmother’s word for love-making [DA].
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 231: Swishes of both sexes stop lolligagging for their other pet pastime — getting up petitions aginst Joe McCarthy.
1953		Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 259: lally-gaggin’: n. Love-making, coquettish or flirtatious behavior.
1993		S. King Dolores Claiborne 77: They may not get along with each other as well as they once did [...] not bitin each other, or lollygaggin.

2. (US campus) to surpass, to take advantage of.

1871

L.H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 45: Lalligag, to [...] ‘come it over,’ a man.

3. (US) to dawdle, to dally, to fool about.

1870		Northern Vindicator 19 Feb. n.p.: The weather once more is ‘salubrious’ and balmy, and indicates that winter will not lollygag in the lap of spring [DA].
1873		Ariz. Citizen (Tucson, AZ) 9 Aug. 2/1: He’ll not permit much ‘lally-gagging’ around his quarters.
1885		Salt Lake Eve. Democrat (UT) 27 June 2/3: Some of these girls lallygag about [...] for ten minutes before they go into the water.
1897		St Paul Globe (MN) 17 June 6/4: The main desire of the people is that congress should do something definite and not spend the whole summer over fussing debates and lallygagging.
1906		Holt Co. Sentinel (Oregon, MO) 26 Oct. 8/3: [You have] no ability to do anything but loaf and lop and lally-gag around.
1910		Sat. Eve. Post 30 July 19/1: Frank lally-gagged through the first term and came back for the second [DA].
1921		Eve. World (NY) 13 June 12/1: Don’t lallygag along that highway, Jack.
1927		(con. 1910s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 354: Just a lot of easygoing churches, lollygagging along, while the just God threatens this city with [...] fire and devouring brimstone.
1934		Z.N. Hurston Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1995) 59: Naw, you ain’t goin’ lolly-gaggin’ down tuh no spring wid all dese loose gals.
1948		(con. c.1910s) J. Stevens Big Jim Turner 59: They were so thick nowadays as to be smirking and lallygagging around.
1948		J.M. Cain Moth (1950) 242: Lollygagging all over the place.
1968		T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 325: They either emerge as Superheroes [...] or just lollygag in the loop-the-loop of the gag.
1972		O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 230: Come right on back, don’t be lollygaggin’ ’round, you understand?
1987		T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 585: Television crewmen, radio broadcasters, reporters, and photographers sat, milled and lollygagged about in jeans.
1997		L. Pettiway Workin’ It 122: We’re talking, lollygagging, drinking beer, and all that.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 158: You’d have thought she and I had lollygagged for a month.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 37: Only a lover or a relative would have the cojones to lollygag [...] with her corpse like that.