A.Word.A.Day --shilly-shally

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shilly-shally

PRONUNCIATION:

(SHIL-ee-shal-ee)

MEANING:

adverb: Hesitantly; irresolutely.
adjective: Hesitant; vacillating.
noun: Hesitation; vacillation.
verb intr.: To vacillate; to dawdle.

ETYMOLOGY:

From reduplication of the question Shall I?

USAGE:

"We go after bigger things, and don't stand shilly-shally on the brink as you do."
Anthony Trollope; The Way We Live Now; 1875.

See more usage examples of shilly-shally in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it -- and stop there -- lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again, and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one any more. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

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