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

"For too long, the North has been held back by underinvestment and years of dither and delay," Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said.

From BBC ● Jan. 13, 2026

WWF Scotland says it should be a "lightbulb moment" for ministers while Oxfam Scotland says it is time to stop the "delay and dither" and start delivering.

From BBC ● May 20, 2025

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

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

And so even if Congress dithers after today, transparency is coming to platforms one way or another.

From The Verge ● May 5, 2022

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

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

Tilly dithers in the little porch, waiting to open the door.

From The Rainbow by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

Kinsky had earlier rushed out to stop Adam Armstrong reaching a long ball after Kevin Danso dithered and allowed the striker to sprint ahead.

From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2026

Beirut dithered away all of 2025 while U.S. envoy Tom Barrack pleaded with it to disarm Hezbollah.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026

While Washington dithered, he appeared to place risky bets that incinerated his fortune, jeopardized billions of dollars in Silicon Valley capital and upended an entire ecosystem of cryptocurrency start-ups.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 17, 2022

While local officials dithered over its fate, its whereabouts remained a mystery, and many want to keep it that way.

From New York Times ● May 5, 2022

I’d dithered over what to tell her until it was time for bed.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

"What needs to happen now is for the Labour Party to stop dithering and be the voice of workers," she added.

From BBC ● Jun. 9, 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

I’ve seen it many times, her dithering, fumble-footed efforts to appease him.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood