Word.ws English Dictionary

taking one's sweet time

taking one's sweet time is the present participle and gerund of take one's sweet time.

Meaning of take one's sweet time

Verb

take one's sweet time (third-person singular simple present takes one's sweet time, present participle taking one's sweet time, simple past took one's sweet time, past participle taken one's sweet time)

  1. (colloquial) To take a very long time; to be too slow or leisurely in getting something done.
    • It had been almost a year since Brother Steve had left, and they'd been stuck with one substitute after another while the bishop took his sweet time finding a permanent replacement. Lindsay just hoped the wait would be worth it.2012, Patsy Caldwell, Amy Lyles Wilson, You Be Sweet: Sharing Your Heart One Down-Home Dessert at a Time
  2. (Malaysia, Singapore, colloquial) To waste one's own time.

Questions about taking one's sweet time

What is taking one's sweet time the present participle and gerund of?
Taking one's sweet time is the present participle and gerund of take one's sweet time.

Words near taking one's sweet time in the dictionary

  1. taking one's pick
  2. taking one's place
  3. taking one's rise
  4. taking one's seat
  5. taking one's sweet little time
  6. taking one's sweet time
  7. taking one's time
  8. taking one's turn
  9. taking oneself up by one's own ears
  10. taking orders
  11. taking out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taking one's sweet time (page history and authors); take one's sweet time (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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