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 — food is only out for one hour.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 20, 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

I dally in the palace garden to gather a few more things.

From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black

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

If legislative negotiations prove as fruitless this year as they have in the past, if Congress dallies, he will act.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 29, 2014

The very next season, however, he meets, in a sweet rural solitude of the Province, another charmer, with whom he dallies in a lovelorn way for two years or more.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 83, September, 1864 by Various

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

The England keeper, playing because David Raya was ineligible against his parent club, dallied over a clearance and allowed a sliding Yoane Wissa to score.

From BBC ● Mar. 9, 2024

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

At Ojai, Lewis wistfully performed the solo prelude off in Libbey Park shrubbery as if a dallying forest spirit summoning ghosts of festivals past.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026

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

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

“Pass me your quizzes, everyone—and no dallying, please. A stitch in time saves time, you know.”

From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart