Dictionary

slow-walk en · VERB · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

Attested since 1973 in Southern dialects of American English; prominent since the late 1990s. Thought by William Safire to derive from a Tennessee term for the walking gait of the Tennessee Walking Horse, which is generally called "flat walk", but sometimes a "slow walk".

Meanings

1. (especially, idiomatic, transitive) To delay a request or command, to drag one's feet, to stall, to obstruct, to drag out a process.
   • Mr. Pulte argued that Mr. Siebert was slow-walking the James case in order to get confirmed by the Senate for a job in a state with two Democratic senators, according to people briefed on the conversation. 2025 September 27, “Inside the Trump Administration’s Push to Prosecute James Comey”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
   • many of the men were simply standing around and were purposely ‘slow-walking’ the project […] to stretch out the term of employment. 1973, testimony in United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit case (regarding labor dispute)
   • Since assuming office, Trump has issued many private demands to aides that have either been slow-walked or altogether ignored. 2019 May 15, Elaina Plott, “Ignoring Trump’s Orders, Hoping He’ll Forget”, in The Atlantic:

Forms

Synonyms

slow roll · drag one's feet

wikipedia: Tennessee Walking Horse · wikipedia: William Safire · wikipedia: The New York Times Magazine

slow-walk en · VERB · etymology 2

Etymology

Attested since 1962 in Southern (North and South Carolina) dialects of American English; of unknown origin.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To punish, to chastise.

Forms