lanterner
French, verb\lɑ̃.tɛʁ.ne\
lanterner is spelled L-A-N-T-E-R-N-E-R (9 letters) and appears about once in every 39 million words in written French, the 198,467th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Lanterner is a French verb meaning “to dilly-dally” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Être irrésolu en affaires, perdre le temps à des riens”.
What does lanterner mean in English?
verb
- 1
to dilly-dally
- 2
to delay or put off
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Être irrésolu en affaires, perdre le temps à des riens. 2. Faire attendre un solliciteur en lui faisant croire qu’on lui donnera satisfaction. Repousser indéfiniment l’exécution d’une (vague) promesse. Amuser un obligé, un subordonné, un inférieur, un électeur par des paroles apaisantes.
verb: 1. Pendre aux cordes d’un réverbère un adversaire politique ; mettre à la lanterne.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of lanterner
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- lanternant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- lanterné participle past
- lanterne first-person indicative present
- lanternes indicative present second-person
- lanternons first-person indicative plural
- lanternez indicative plural present
- lanternent indicative plural present
- lanternais first-person imperfect indicative
- lanternait imperfect indicative singular
- lanternions first-person imperfect indicative
- lanterniez imperfect indicative plural
- lanternaient imperfect indicative plural
- lanternai first-person historic indicative
- lanternas historic indicative past
- lanterna historic indicative past
- lanternâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce lanterner?
- \lɑ̃.tɛʁ.ne\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to lanterner
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is lanterner in French?
lanterner appears about once in every 39 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).