dillydally
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“We’re talking about war-fighting, national security, and going against a competitor here and a potential adversary that is like nothing we’ve ever seen. And we can’t dillydally around with these deliveries.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 24, 2023
Simpson has worked with other directors who don’t dillydally.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 19, 2017
Yes she did, and in no mood to dillydally about it, either.
From Time Magazine Archive
I saw that you were tempted by the fear of not seeming a patriot to dillydally with the situation and avoid expressing yourself in perspicuous language.
From Search-Light Letters by Grant, Robert
The wife is soon marking time with an Italian movie director, and the writer dillydallies with a local marchesa who wickedly dots her toes with perfume.
From Time Magazine Archive
In reworking Voigt's escapade, Scriptwriter Zuckmayer dillydallies interminably in the soupy background of the hoax, gets down to the actual romp only in the last third of the film.
From Time Magazine Archive
So it’s not as if the plaintiffs dillydallied in bringing their challenge.
From Slate ● Dec. 5, 2025
All three airlines I contacted delayed, obfuscated or otherwise dillydallied before getting me answers, but let’s start with your travel agent, American Express.
From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2024
Revealing an uncharacteristic lack of decision, the emperor dillydallied, then trusted the English to be honorable and soon found himself en route to St. Helena.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 3, 2021
Meanwhile, Major League Baseball has dillydallied over hiring female umpires for years, but has still never lifted a female ump above the Double-A level.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2014
He had delayed and dillydallied in order to give his horse time to eat.
From Gabriel Tolliver A Story of Reconstruction by Harris, Joel Chandler
By 2022, questions about Garland’s deliberative dillydallying became unavoidable.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 12, 2025
"He's not going to be dillydallying," Fodeman said.
From Reuters ● Jan. 4, 2023
And because of his adaptability from the dillydallying football of 2003 to the space-age football of 2021.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 13, 2021
“Why are we dillydallying in protecting a child? The lack of serious urgency about this case is disturbing,” she added.
From New York Times ● Jul. 30, 2018
I’d spent over a month here dillydallying around, refusing to tell August about my mother when I could have done it so easy, and now that I really needed to tell her, I couldn’t.
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
