shilly-shallied

verb

past tense of shilly-shally
1
as in hesitated
to show uncertainty about the right course of action I didn't shilly-shally but instead raced to the hospital as soon as I heard the news

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in delayed
to move or act slowly with dinner guests due in two hours, there was no time to shilly-shally in front of the TV set

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for shilly-shallied
  1. hesitated
  2. delayed
  3. faltered
  4. lingered
  5. dragged
  6. crawled
  7. poked
Verb
  • Valkyria hesitated for a split second and Bayley took advantage.
    — Ryan Gaydos OutKick, FOXNews.com, 27 Oct. 2026
  • Defenders hesitated between hedging and switching, allowing screeners to slip toward the rim.
    — C.J. Holmes, New York Daily News, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of hesitated
Verb
  • At polling locations across Florida's Broward County, voting was delayed for 20 minutes after polls opened because a new voting system safety feature malfunctioned.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 4 Nov. 2026
  • During this time, as the district and the community colleges system responded to the safety incident, students’ disbursements were delayed.
    — Tarini Mehta, Sacbee.com, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of delayed
Verb
  • When that reboot faltered, climaxing in a nightmarish season-14 finale, RHONY got another, softer reboot in the form of all but three cast members being fired.
    — Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 4 Nov. 2026
  • Initially, local and state leaders considered a relocation plan for some homes and businesses that would get people out of harm’s way, but the project faltered.
    — Cengiz Yar, ProPublica, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of faltered
Verb
  • Concerns lingered even though later studies showed the benefits of today’s hormone therapies outweigh the risks for many women.
    — Laura Ungar, Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 2026
  • Unaccompanied minors entering the state hit a peak of 1,441 in 2021 and lingered above 1,000 each year until last year.
    — Sasha Allen, Hartford Courant, 1 Nov. 2026
Definition of lingered
Verb
  • The Euphemism Problem In April 2017, a passenger was dragged off a United Airlines flight in Chicago.
    — Ronn Torossian, Forbes.com, 6 Nov. 2026
  • The ship dragged its anchor along the seabed for about 80 miles, damaging two telecommunications cables, according to a court statement.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 5 Nov. 2026
Definition of dragged
Verb
  • This year has both flown past and also crawled along at a snail’s pace.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 5 Nov. 2026
  • The lawsuit says Brave crawled and copied content from more than 30 billion webpages in its index without identifying itself or providing the owners of websites any mechanism to block its crawler, according to the newspapers’ complaint.
    — Molly Crane Newman, The Orlando Sentinel, 2 Nov. 2026
Definition of crawled
Verb
  • Reid returned but kept grabbing at his lower back, White returned after being poked in eye.
    — Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer, 4 Nov. 2026
  • Kessler, standing nearby during Williams’ postgame news conference, poked his head out from behind a black curtain and gave his teammate a thumbs-up.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2026
Definition of poked
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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shills
shilly-shallied
shilly-shallies
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Cite this Entry

“Shilly-shallied.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shilly-shallied. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026.

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