dawdle

When you’re moving tons of food at the edge of its usefulness — an average of 250,000 pounds or 125 tons every day — no one can afford to dawdle.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2024

If a few passengers dawdle while stowing their bag and finding their seat, it can make the difference between a flight being on time or late in the government’s official statistics.

From Washington Times ● Oct. 19, 2023

A bouncy strut, a dart-and-weave, a dawdle with a dog.

From New York Times ● Sep. 24, 2023

And while there's still a need for a similarly big player to volumize Kernza sales, smaller companies can keep farmers growing the crop while consumer packaged goods companies dawdle on the sidelines.

From Salon ● Sep. 21, 2023

“I wish you wouldn’t dawdle so, Margaret! I have been standing here for the better part of a minute. Now draw me a bath, please, and lay out a fresh gown.”

From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood

If Minnesota dawdles, it “will rack up $1 billion of deferred payments this year,” the CMS head said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026

It is the role of prosecutors to vindicate that interest by initiating judicial action when a defendant dawdles.

From Slate ● Oct. 7, 2024

Many of Dellario’s gently impressionistic pictures depict Rock Creek as it dawdles through and around large, glistening rocks.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 26, 2022

The second movement is an inert nocturne; in the third an intriguing idea, a duet passage for tuba and harp, dawdles into irrelevance.

From New York Times ● May 27, 2016

He lingers and dawdles through his round of hours as though it joyed him to be sluggish.

From Doctor Claudius, A True Story by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

In the 71st minute, off quick ball, with excellent field position and Murley lurking wide, Seb Atkinson similarly dawdled too long and had his kick blocked.

From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2026

Later, at Brasserie de Monaco, the principality’s craft beer brewery, I dawdled over a pint of Blonde de Monaco and fell into conversation with Nils, a Danish skipper.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 10, 2026

When the horses eventually broke from the gate, Zenyatta, as usual, dawdled.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2023

When No. 23 WSU hosts Northern Colorado this weekend, though, the Cougars will get a chance to sharpen the one part of their offense that has dawdled: The run game.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2023

So he dawdled until he came to the picket fence, and every day Mrs. Cobb was standing at the door waiting for him, scowling and sour.

From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt

Cut a dawdling fight scene here and an interminable escape scene there, and the film would make a delightful in-universe companion to precede next summer’s “Superman” sequel, “Man of Tomorrow.”

From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026

Like, just in case someone’s dawdling, or being careless about where they’re dumping snow.

From Slate ● Feb. 24, 2026

Then again, all the bickering, dawdling, and reliably self-preserving ignorance toward the catastrophe nipping at their heels is the point.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 18, 2024

After Black Rod — Sarah Clarke — raps three times on the door with her staff, lawmakers make their way to the House of Lords, deliberately dawdling and chatting as they go.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 6, 2023

“Be quick about your business, no dawdling, understand?”

From "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson