shilly-shally: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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	Word of the Day for Monday, March 11, 2013 shilly-shally \SHIL-ee-shal-ee\, verb: 1. to show indecision or hesitation; be irresolute; vacillate. 2. to waste time; dawdle. noun: 1. irresolution; indecision; vacillation: It was sheer shilly-shally on his part. adjective: 1. irresolute; undecided; vacillating. Great mistake—Make up your mind and don't shilly shally. -- Agatha Christie, A Caribbean Mystery, 1964 But look, Your Highness, I didn't come to shilly-shally, so don't say anything to inhibit her. I want it straight. -- Saul Bellow, Henderon the Rain King, 1959 In the great tradition of reduplicating a phrase to infuse it with a dose of levity, shilly-shally comes from the phrase “shall I, shall I.” When shilly-shally first entered English at the turn of the eighteenth century, it was spelled "shill I, shall I." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help Words of the Day? How about words of timeless wisdom? Introducing our Quotes channel! "Life itself is a quotation." - Jorge Luis Borges Check out the Quote of the Day ›› How do you use this slippery piece of punctuation: the slash? The slash (/)-sometimes called a slant, a solidus, a stroke, or a virgule-is a commonly employed symbol in the English language. Whatever you want to call this piece of punctuation, its role in English has greatly changed over time. The word slash first entered English in the late 14th century as a verb to describe the... Read more ›› Dictionary.com Word of the Day You are subscribed to the Word of the Day as: e-dict...@googlegroups.com Subscriber since: January 06, 2008 Unsubscribe from the Word of the Day To subscribe to the Word of the Day by email, please send a blank message to: join-wor...@lists.lexico.com ©2013 by Dictionary.com, LLC. 555 12th Street Suite 500 Oakland CA 94607 Subscriptions to the Word of the Day can also be managed online   Tell a friend about the Word of the Day!