From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdoodledoo‧dle /ˈduːdl/ verb [intransitive] AVDRAWto draw shapes, lines, or patterns without really thinking about what you are doing Brad was doodling on a sheet of paper.► see thesaurus at draw —doodle noun [countable]→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
doodle• She doodled a lot when she was bored, filling her notes with stars and planets.• She was doodling in the sand and I was on my tummy watching her.• Margo was doodling on a legal pad.• Simon was lying on the floor, doodling on a sheet of paper.• The more tenured civil servants doodled on coarse notepads; the senior staff dozed.• Most of them doodle on the pieces of paper they are given.• I always doodle while I'm talking on the phone.• She drifted slowly over to the telephone, most people doodled while they talked, and Roman proved no exception.• We step past Calvin who doodles with a twig in the dust, and make our way towards the car.• She started to doodle with the tape as accompaniment.• You write text, you doodle, you cross things out... quite literally a tabula rasa.Origin doodle (1600-1700) Perhaps from doodle “to make fun of”, from Low German dudeltopf “stupid person” 