dilly dally
Drag your feet
To dilly-dally is to waste time through indecision or aimless activity—dawdling when you should be acting.
The reduplicated form suggests the back-and-forth of someone who can't commit to moving forward: Stop dilly-dallying and make up your mind.
Often used as mild criticism of someone taking too long.
- hesitatePause in uncertainty
- hem and hawSpeak evasively, delay deciding
- lingerStay beyond necessity
- dawdleLinger without purpose
- tarryDelay one's leaving
take one's time · delay · loiter · temporize · procrastinate · stall · beat around the bush · wait · lollygag · twiddle thumbs · pause · meander · fiddle · prolong · defer · shilly-shally · put off · sit on
decisiveness
dilly dallytake action
Begin doing something
decide · commit · take the plunge · bite the bullet · make up one's mind
purposefulness
dilly dallyget down to business
Begin focused work
buckle down · focus · knuckle down · apply oneself · concentrate