dither

Elias has decided to stay put even as prices dither.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

And while Hamlet may dither in seeking revenge for his father’s murder, we don’t hope that the scheming Claudius gets away with it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 14, 2026

Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson said: "Every single day, thousands of victims are denied the justice they deserve... the government cannot afford to dither and delay, they must crack down on unsolved crimes."

From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2025

Among bereaved families, there is widespread dismay that successive governments have chosen to dither and delay when the consequences of inaction has been further lost lives.

From BBC ● Jan. 11, 2025

When Sunday actually came around, I was in a real dither over my date.

From "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" by Melba Pattillo Beals

But the feature dithers in development, which becomes something of a running joke here; the shot of a stone-faced Mr. McElwee watching a ridiculous promo reel is a moment of perfectly understated comedy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

The narrator dithers over how much she wants a leadership position in this unofficial hierarchy of casual dismissiveness, earnestness avoidance and radical obsolescence.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2021

But as the company dithers, its users are organizing.

From The Verge ● Aug. 16, 2018

A result of this visual flatness is that some sequences drag with clichés, as the camera dithers on hackneyed images like Lexi flushing her wedding ring down the motel sink.

From New York Times ● Mar. 15, 2018

And the high brass went into a dither to end all dithers as tapes of the received material reached the Pentagon and were translated into intelligible speech and pictures.

From The Machine That Saved The World by Murray Leinster

The air force had flagged the need for new advanced fighter aircraft 25 years ago, but successive governments dithered on the purchase.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 25, 2026

It was a much quieter affair after the break but Parris was at hand to capitalise as Spurs dithered and were unable to clear the ball from the six-yard box.

From BBC ● May 7, 2023

It’s less dramatic perhaps, but also more unstoppable because we’ve dithered for so long.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2022

Colfax was a front-runner to succeed Greeley at the helm of the Tribune but faced resistance from his wife and hesitated to seek the job, which went to distinguished correspondent Whitelaw Reid while Colfax dithered.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 12, 2022

Madam Malkin dithered for a moment on the spot, then seemed to decide to act as though nothing was happening in the hope that it wouldn’t.

From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling

"The reason that he's dithering is because he doesn't know where the money is coming from," she said.

From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026

After some dithering, I settled on my home state of New York.

From Slate ● Jan. 13, 2026

Pentagon dithering over the Navy’s sixth-generation fighter, the F/A-XX, has delayed its development and led to hundreds of millions in contract-extension costs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 2, 2025

It would rather binge-watch thousands of hours of trashy TV shows than deal with the dithering crew of space hippies to which it’s been assigned.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2025

“A Princess’s reception? A Royal Command?” she shrieked, dithering.

From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck