dawdle

But old rival Messi is on 931 goals, the second highest scorer ever, so Ronaldo cannot afford to dawdle too much...

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026

She has set a six-minute daily time limit as a reminder not to dawdle on Instagram.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 4, 2024

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

Others dawdle, the ones with a kitchen full of kids and help that has gone home.

From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

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

And yet, he almost takes pride in his ability to put things off, saying he dawdles on an “Olympic level.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 1, 2023

Weyman’s cloak-and-rapier swashbuckler is long — over 400 pages in my edition — but its action never dawdles.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 1, 2021

These Messrs. Vanderclump were served by two tall, smooth-faced dawdles; I never could discover which held the superior station in the ménage.

From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 288, Supplementary Number by Various

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

Not yet knowing what I was in for, though, I dawdled, thinking the journey too far and impractical, until I finally relented about 20 hours before totality over Idaho.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2024

Students dawdled in their first period classes with cameras off, waiting for teachers who had not been able to log in.

From New York Times ● Feb. 13, 2024

Bologna should have exulted Dunbar, because the minutes dawdled and the hours dragged like centuries.

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

"The film has a few scattered giggles, but it's dawdling and cumbersome, and far less 'relevant' than it thinks," read a review from the Hollywood trade publication Variety.

From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026

I hastened my step to my car, not dawdling for a second to check messages once planted in the driver’s seat.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

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

‘Not he! When his tools have done their task he drops them. But you must go dangling after him, dawdling and talking, and riding round twice as far as you needed. “

From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien