dally

He did not dally, perhaps mindful of what had happened the night before.

From BBC ● Jan. 15, 2026

If you dally as the clock approaches 2 p.m. on Sunday, you will see that Jerson Osorio’s team can unbuild a city as fast as they can build one.

From Slate ● Dec. 22, 2024

Don’t dally until it becomes an established problem to deal with.

From Seattle Times ● May 17, 2023

The staging doesn’t dally but there’s enough stillness to allow emotion to drop like a stone into a pond.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2019

To dither and dally when the window of opportunity opens means to end up with one’s nose pressed against the glass of fate, gazing with regret at what might have been.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood

The author gallops through vital moments in world history across the centuries but dallies over what seem like niche aspects of medieval French history.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

Nightmare for stand-in Dons captain Angus MacDonald as he dallies on the ball and is dispossessed by Kyogo Furuhashi.

From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2024

Keith Poulson’s Chris, an insecure former child actor cast as Nick’s counterpart in the play, dallies with both Mona and Esther Garrel’s Thérèse — who plays the Mona figure and seeks out Nick for research.

From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2018

The midfielder should shoot, but dallies, attempts a pointless one-two with Lukaku, and sees his eventual attempt for goal squirt off to the left.

From The Guardian ● May 11, 2016

No fixt abode the traitor knows— On sportive wings he flies; Awhile he dallies with the rose, Then smiles in lovers' eyes.

From The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 6, June 1810 by S. C. (Stephen Cullen) Carpenter

How many children were left without a safety net in the time we dilly dallied and worried about tech bosses?

From BBC ● May 12, 2026

Rennes midfielder Quentin Merlin dallied deep in his own area and was ambushed by Timothy Weah who passed to Amine Gouiri.

From Barron's ● Feb. 3, 2026

It, along with its sibling, had stood empty for nearly 25 years, as local, county and Navy authorities dallied on what to do with them.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2023

After the fourth try, scored by Etzebeth, made it 26-25, Dupont dallied on the ball and got knocked back as South Africa won a penalty and went further ahead.

From Washington Times ● Oct. 15, 2023

“Well, I’ve dallied enough. I must attend to my mother.”

From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas

Rabbi Matondo then spurned a big chance to double Rangers' lead on the brink of half-time, dallying on the ball and allowing Atkinson to get back and block the shot.

From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2024

Jones’ denial in 24 hours of Meadows’ emergency motion was the mark of a court unwilling to tolerate any dallying in the search of justice.

From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2023

Over the course of a long and sometimes dallying act, Kirkwood unravels the intricate backstory of three scientists, who in ways good and ill turn out to be exemplary of their baby boomer generation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 8, 2021

Klopp empowers his players to think for themselves: the iconic winning goal against Barcelona in last year’s Champions League semifinal came from the squad’s observation that its opponent was dallying during set pieces.

From New York Times ● Jun. 26, 2020

The unit organizer, who had been dallying with his pencil, looked up.

From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright