slow-walk

verb

ˈslō-ˌwȯk 

slow-walked; slow-walking; slow-walks

transitive verb

: to delay or prevent the progress of (something) by acting in a deliberately slow manner

They can still slow-walk the confirmation process, though, stretching out the Senate's consideration for each Cabinet-level pick for days, which collectively could strangle business in the chamber for months.

—Tamar Hallerman

The suit claims the university slow-walked a formal complaint filed last December, dragging out the internal investigation until some of the accused male swimmers graduated and could no longer be punished.

—Thomas J. Prohaska

slow-walking noun

The slow-walking of processing asylum claims, and the huge backlog of cases at ports of entry, are only adding to tensions in the region.

—Roberta Jacobson and Dan Restrepo

Examples of slow-walk in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Faced with community complaints, Mayor Karen Bass retools her affordable housing strategy July 6, 2024 This summer, low-income housing advocates sued the city alleging that Feldstein Soto and Park, with the tacit support of Bass, violated fair housing laws by slow-walking the project. —Liam Dillon, Los Angeles Times, 13 Dec. 2024

Health insurers slow-walking approvals of medical treatment and outright denials of procedures, hospital stays or other care led these companies to greater profits, critics of UnitedHealthcare and other health insurers say. —Bruce Japsen, Forbes, 7 Dec. 2024

Trump's relationships with his own party in the Senate have long been touch and go, and the chamber's rules afford the minority party the chance to slow-walk or even kill bills that don't involve some degree of bipartisanship. —Riley Beggin, USA TODAY, 8 Nov. 2024

While full repeal of the act may be unlikely, an administration hostile to clean energy could divert its unspent funds to other purposes, slow the pace of grants or loans by slow-walking project approvals, or find other ways to make the tax incentives harder to get. —James Morton Turner, Discover Magazine, 9 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1965, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

slow–walk

verb

: to delay or prevent the progress of (something) by acting in a deliberately slow manner