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

Anything else is just slow-walking the inevitable. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. —Dave Birnbaum, Forbes, 2 Mar. 2025

And, whereas during the first Trump term there was enough chaos and resistance inside the government that some of Trump’s more damaging impulses—to withdraw from NATO, for example—could be slow-walked into oblivion, this time around was different. —Keith Gessen, The New Yorker, 26 Feb. 2025

State agencies casually slow-walk or ignore lawful requests for public records. —Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel Editorial Boards, Orlando Sentinel, 25 Feb. 2025

This level of irresponsibility is how a city slow-walks itself to insolvency. —The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 23 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1965, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for slow-walk

• alcock
• beanstalk
• bedrock
• boardwalk
• catwalk
• cornstalk
• crosswalk
• deadlock
• feedstock
• fetlock
• flintlock
• goshawk

Kids Definition

slow–walk

verb

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