slow-walk

verb

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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Former government officials have said HHS, under Kennedy, was moving to slow-walk vaccine approvals, including by imposing new regulatory hurdles on drugmakers, such as changing the requirements for approval or seeking additional clinical trial data. Berkeley Lovelace Jr., NBC news, 1 May 2025 But over the last 100 days, as lawsuits flooded in across the country challenging his policies, signs emerged that Trump and his allies were slow-walking, if not directly ignoring, court orders. Michael Wilner, Los Angeles Times, 29 Apr. 2025 At issue has been the interest of Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, in finding a way to move past what is perceived as a slow-walk of regulatory approval for the pending acquisition of her company by Skydance. Brian Steinberg, Variety, 28 Apr. 2025 Since then, talks between the United States, Ukraine, and Russia toward brokering a ceasefire have advanced at a glacial pace, and Trump has repeatedly lambasted Zelensky for allegedly slow-walking the process. Christian Datoc, The Washington Examiner, 23 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for slow-walk

Word History

First Known Use

1965, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of slow-walk was in 1965

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Slow-walk.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slow-walk. Accessed 7 May. 2025.

Kids Definition

slow–walk

verb
: to delay or prevent the progress of (something) by acting in a deliberately slow manner
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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