shilly-shallying
shilly-shallying is the present participle and gerund of shilly-shally.
Meaning of shilly-shally
Verb
shilly-shally (third-person singular simple present shilly-shallies, present participle shilly-shallying, simple past and past participle shilly-shallied)
- To procrastinate.
- "Why, you sees [sic], Captain, your time has come, and you can't shilly-shally any longer. You have had your full swing; your years are up, and you must die like a man!"1836, Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton, Paul Clifford in The works of Edward Lytton Bulwer, esq. in two volumes, Volume 1, Page 633
- To vacillate.
- The shilly-shallying performance on domestic issues that has marked Bush's first two years in office is not the result of ineptitude.1991 January 7, Michael Duffy, “The Two George Bushes: At Home—A Case of Doing Nothing”, in Time
Noun
shilly-shallying (plural shilly-shallyings)
- An act of procrastination of vacillation.
Forms of shilly-shallying
| plural | shilly-shallyings |
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Questions about shilly-shallying
- What does shilly-shallying mean?
- Shilly-shallying means an act of procrastination of vacillation.
- What is shilly-shallying the present participle and gerund of?
- Shilly-shallying is the present participle and gerund of shilly-shally.
- What part of speech is shilly-shallying?
- Shilly-shallying is a noun.
- What is the plural of shilly-shallying?
- The plural of shilly-shallying is shilly-shallyings.
Words near shilly-shallying in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shilly-shallying (page history and authors); shilly-shally (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “shilly-shallying.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shilly-shallying. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.