slow-walk

verb

ˈslō-ˌwȯk 

slow-walked; slow-walking; slow-walks

transitive verb

: to delay or prevent the progress of (something) by acting in a deliberately slow manner

They can still slow-walk the confirmation process, though, stretching out the Senate's consideration for each Cabinet-level pick for days, which collectively could strangle business in the chamber for months.

—Tamar Hallerman

The suit claims the university slow-walked a formal complaint filed last December, dragging out the internal investigation until some of the accused male swimmers graduated and could no longer be punished.

—Thomas J. Prohaska

slow-walking noun

The slow-walking of processing asylum claims, and the huge backlog of cases at ports of entry, are only adding to tensions in the region.

—Roberta Jacobson and Dan Restrepo

Examples of slow-walk in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

During the April 9 hearing, defense attorney Anne Taylor attempted to argue that the prosecution is intentionally slow-walking discovery, but later admitted that all requests from the defense have been provided. —Adam Sabes, FOXNews.com, 16 Apr. 2025

To be sure, Abe managed to slow-walk talks and get Trump to agree to keep the Tokyo-Washington trade dynamics largely unchanged. —William Pesek, Forbes.com, 14 Apr. 2025

Weiss was accused of slow-walking an investigation into Hunter Biden but ultimately brought tax and gun charges against him. —Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill, 11 Apr. 2025

But Dmitriev's visit follows signs of impatience on the part of Trump that Putin is slow-walking negotiations over Ukraine. —Natalia Drozdiak and Stephanie Lai Bloomberg News, Arkansas Online, 3 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1965, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for slow-walk

• alcock
• beanstalk
• bedrock
• boardwalk
• catwalk
• cornstalk
• crosswalk
• deadlock
• feedstock
• fetlock
• flintlock
• goshawk

Kids Definition

slow–walk

verb

: to delay or prevent the progress of (something) by acting in a deliberately slow manner