dawdling
Moving too slowly
Dawdling is wasting time by moving or acting slowly, lingering when you should be getting on with things.
A child dawdles on the way to school, stopping to examine every interesting rock.
Quit dawdling and get dressed!
The word carries mild disapproval—dawdling suggests laziness or lack of purpose rather than deliberate patience.
Purposeless public lingering
- saunteringWalking in unhurried manner
- amblingWalking without urgency
- strollingWalking at ease
- wanderingTraveling with no fixed course
moseying · lollygagging · dillydallying · pottering · idling · rambling · shuffling · drifting
Habitual task avoidance
- stallingIntentional delay tactics
- dallyingIdling without purpose
- tarryingRemaining beyond expected time
- lingeringRemaining beyond expected duration
lagging · hesitation · temporizing · shilly-shallying · dithering · postponement · foot-dragging · dragging
loitering
Purposeless public lingering
- saunteringWalking in unhurried manner
- amblingWalking without urgency
- strollingWalking at ease
wandering · moseying · lollygagging · dillydallying · pottering · idling · rambling · shuffling · drifting · milling
procrastination
Habitual task avoidance
- stallingIntentional delay tactics
- dallyingIdling without purpose
- tarryingRemaining beyond expected time
lingering · lagging · hesitation · temporizing · shilly-shallying · dithering · postponement · foot-dragging · dragging · slowing
- bad habitssmoking, drinking, lying, swearing, gossiping
- delaysdelays, delay, delayed, postponement, postpone
- idle timekilling time, passing time, wasting time, whiling away, doing nothing
- Leisurely Pastimeslounging, relaxing, resting, lazing, idling
- productivity killersdistractions, procrastination, wasted time, multitasking, micromanagement
- setbacksfailing, back to square one, stuck, losing, stumbles
dawdlingefficient
Productive without waste
industrious · productive · diligent · focused · driven
dawdlinghustling
Hurrying or swindling
pressing on · forging ahead · pushing forward · buckling down · cracking on