drag one's feet
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.99 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
1
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To procrastinate, put off; to dawdle, avoid, or make progress slowly and reluctantly.
verb
To intentionally stall, to delay, to obstruct.
Example Sentences
- "I have been dragging my feet about filing my taxes."
- "There was much to love about this last season, from the tense opening barfight to the finale shootout with the IRA, which was so disorientingly murky and gas-filled it felt otherworldly. But it struggled to ever quite get going, with the first five episodes dragging their feet in a way that began to frustrate."
- "Yet ministers continue to drag their feet, appearing to obstinately prefer any option other than the obvious, while also saying, as Lord Hendy did on January 19: "It is clear that the West Coast Main Line is full of trains. There's no space left.""
Etymology
From the idea of walking while dragging one's feet along the ground, either from lack of enthusiasm or to intentionally slow down movement. Compare dig in one's heels (“firmly oppose”).