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
  • Teammates excitedly jumped off the bench, then hesitated when Thiero’s right knee appeared to buckle awkwardly under him.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 7 Oct. 2026
  • Montgomery hesitated in front of Lee before cutting inside to leave Lee one-on-one with a defender streaking toward the end zone.
    — PJ Green September 27, Kansas City Star, 27 Sep. 2026
Definition of hesitated
Verb
  • Oura was just one of several IPOs that have been delayed over the past month.
    — Morgan Chittum, Fortune, 6 Oct. 2026
  • In the same week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman unveiled Dots, the company pulled its latest AI model and delayed its IPO due to existential safety concerns around the very same AI agent tech.
    — Amy O’Brien, Vogue, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of delayed
Verb
  • Current Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has faced intense scrutiny as the state’s insurance market has faltered and has pushed through a series of changes in recent years to try and stabilize it.
    — Stephen Hobbs, Sacbee.com, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Coca-Cola is seeking to unwind its $5 billion acquisition of a British coffeehouse, months after a sales process faltered earlier this year.
    — Leah Quinn, semafor.com, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of faltered
Verb
  • That figure declined to 12% as the pandemic lingered in 2021 and to about 3% in 2024.
    — David Wickert, AJC.com, 12 Oct. 2026
  • Wallace lingered in the car for a few minutes once slowing to a stop, though — long enough for health workers to unload a stretcher that Wallace ultimately didn’t use.
    — Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer, 11 Oct. 2026
Definition of lingered
Verb
  • In that case, too, Erica and Peter not only lived nine months rent-free in the apartment until, as the case dragged on, a judge ordered them to start paying for use of the space, but Erica also criticized the conditions there.
    — Matthew Sedacca, Curbed, 8 Oct. 2026
  • The Department of Homeland Security initially said the agent was dragged by Villegas Gonzalez' vehicle and then shot Villegas Gonzalez in self-defense.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of dragged
Verb
  • In real-world tests, the hand crawled across 14 different surfaces including smooth floors, metal grates, grass, and gravel.
    — Edd Gent, IEEE Spectrum, 8 Oct. 2026
  • OpenAI’s agents also crawled millions of pages and made thousands of data queries, which may have led to the partial outage of the Wikidata Query Service (WDQS) in May, the post adds.
    — Jibin Joseph, PC Magazine, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of crawled
Verb
  • Bellingham poked in Gordon's cross midway through the first half.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 3 Oct. 2026
  • George Lombard singled in a run, Jazz Chisholm poked one through the right side, Trent Grisham got a bunt down for a hit, knocking Crochet out of the game without getting an out.
    — Ian Miller OutKick, FOXNews.com, 1 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.

Browse Nearby Words

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 14 Oct. 2026.

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