dandle v move (a baby) up and down in one's arms or on one's knees v pet the grandfather dandled the small child Usage(s) Queen Min used to dandle him on her royal knee. I don't go out to the hospitals and dandle those kids on my knee. His three children, now famed players Ethel, Lionel and John, would crawl on adolescent Ralph Modjeski's knees, and he would dandle them up and down.