Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb Present participle of
shilly-shally . - noun The action of the verb
Etymologies
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Examples
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Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney's top deputies at the Pentagon recommended a stern rewrite explicitly warning Saddam not to attack Kuwait, but the shilly-shallying N.S.C. letter went out over Bush's signature.
Geoffrey Wawro: Desert Storm Turns Twenty: What Really Happened in 1991, and Why it Matters, Part I of II Geoffrey Wawro 2011
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Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney's top deputies at the Pentagon recommended a stern rewrite explicitly warning Saddam not to attack Kuwait, but the shilly-shallying N.S.C. letter went out over Bush's signature.
Geoffrey Wawro: Desert Storm Turns Twenty: What Really Happened in 1991, and Why it Matters, Part I of II Geoffrey Wawro 2011
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We sat down to eat with a tremendous amount of shilly-shallying, as there were no place names on the tables and everyone was very hesitant to commit.
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More than that, Eddie Dorsett was a fat, slothful, whining, shilly-shallying, phlegmatic zero of a kid, the lowest of the third-graders for certain and a prime contender for the lowest of the entire Rutherford Hodges Elementary student population, no small dishonor.
Phlegmatic Craig Lancaster 2011
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More than that, Eddie Dorsett was a fat, slothful, whining, shilly-shallying, phlegmatic zero of a kid, the lowest of the third-graders for certain and a prime contender for the lowest of the entire Rutherford Hodges Elementary student population, no small dishonor.
Phlegmatic Craig Lancaster 2011
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The show itself revolved around Mitt Romney and the perpetual will-he-won't-he 2012 shilly-shallying dance that he and Palin are developing into a science.
I watched Mitt Romney talk Palin, 2012 on Jay Leno -- and enjoyed it Alexandra Petri 2010
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That shilly-shallying should come as no surprise after the performance of the EU statespersons in l'affaire Tony Blair.
The EU Faces Another Crucial Crisis: Its Determination to Be Ineffectual Irwin Stelzer 2010
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None of this multi-night, shilly-shallying around for Model.
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Y'know, a real man wouldn't do all this back-and-forth shilly-shallying!
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My attitude is this: We have had all the shilly-shallying any one country and any one party (the Dems) shoiuld have to tolerate.
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