See shilly-shally on Wiktionary
{
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"_dis1": "0 0",
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],
"word": "stand shilly-shally"
}
],
"etymology_text": "A reduplication of shall I? An older form was Shill-I-shall-I.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "shilly-shallies",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "shilly-shallying",
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"participle",
"present"
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},
{
"form": "shilly-shallied",
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"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1836, Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton, Paul Clifford in The works of Edward Lytton Bulwer, esq. in two volumes, Volume 1, Page 633",
"text": "\"Why, you sees [sic], Captain, your time has come, and you can't shilly-shally any longer. You have had your full swing; your years are up, and you must die like a man!\""
},
{
"text": "1866, Charles Reade, Griffith Gaunt, in The Argosy: Volume 2 - Page 16, published by Strahan and Co.\n\"She would have come a few months ago, and gladly: I'll write to her.\"\n\"Better talk to her, and persuade her.\"\n\"I'll do that too, but I must write to her first\".\n\"So do then; but whatever you do, don't shilly-shally no longer.\""
},
{
"ref": "1867, The Nation: A Weekly Journal Devoted to Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume 4, page 215:",
"text": "However the resolutions seem merely calculated to waste time, as they involve a whole preliminary discussion before the really important matters can be settled. If the Liberal party were sincere, there would doubtless be an attempt to turn out the Government at once, on the ground that such shilly-shallying with a matter of such importance cannot be allowed",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To procrastinate."
],
"id": "en-shilly-shally-en-verb-9SKJfda1",
"links": [
[
"procrastinate",
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]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal) To procrastinate."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1991 January 7, Michael Duffy, “The Two George Bushes: At Home—A Case of Doing Nothing”, in Time:",
"text": "The shilly-shallying performance on domestic issues that has marked Bush's first two years in office is not the result of ineptitude.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2023 February 11, Janan Ganesh, “After Germany's fall, which is the paragon nation?”, in FT Weekend, page 22:",
"text": "Then Germany lost its halo. It shilly-shallied over Ukraine.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To vacillate."
],
"id": "en-shilly-shally-en-verb-NumQDcLS",
"links": [
[
"vacillate",
"vacillate"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal) To vacillate."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈʃɪliˌʃæli/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-æli"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "shilly and shally"
}
],
"word": "shilly-shally"
}
{
"etymology_text": "A reduplication of shall I? An older form was Shill-I-shall-I.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "more shilly-shally",
"tags": [
"comparative"
]
},
{
"form": "most shilly-shally",
"tags": [
"superlative"
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}
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"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
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{
"ref": "1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 16, in Adam Bede […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:",
"text": "Irwine would think him a shilly-shally fellow ever after.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Indecisive; wavering."
],
"id": "en-shilly-shally-en-adj-UXqyfiQa",
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"indecisive"
],
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"raw_glosses": [
"(informal) Indecisive; wavering."
],
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"informal"
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],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈʃɪliˌʃæli/"
},
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],
"word": "shilly-shally"
}
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],
"glosses": [
"Indecision; irresolution."
],
"id": "en-shilly-shally-en-noun-Os1Bk6~m",
"links": [
[
"Indecision",
"indecision"
],
[
"irresolution",
"irresolution"
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],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal) Indecision; irresolution."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "dilly-dally"
}
],
"tags": [
"informal"
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}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈʃɪliˌʃæli/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-æli"
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],
"word": "shilly-shally"
}
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"English entries with incorrect language header",
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"tags": [
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"word": "stand shilly-shally"
}
],
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"forms": [
{
"form": "shilly-shallies",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "shilly-shallying",
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"participle",
"present"
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{
"form": "shilly-shallied",
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"past"
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],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1836, Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton, Paul Clifford in The works of Edward Lytton Bulwer, esq. in two volumes, Volume 1, Page 633",
"text": "\"Why, you sees [sic], Captain, your time has come, and you can't shilly-shally any longer. You have had your full swing; your years are up, and you must die like a man!\""
},
{
"text": "1866, Charles Reade, Griffith Gaunt, in The Argosy: Volume 2 - Page 16, published by Strahan and Co.\n\"She would have come a few months ago, and gladly: I'll write to her.\"\n\"Better talk to her, and persuade her.\"\n\"I'll do that too, but I must write to her first\".\n\"So do then; but whatever you do, don't shilly-shally no longer.\""
},
{
"ref": "1867, The Nation: A Weekly Journal Devoted to Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume 4, page 215:",
"text": "However the resolutions seem merely calculated to waste time, as they involve a whole preliminary discussion before the really important matters can be settled. If the Liberal party were sincere, there would doubtless be an attempt to turn out the Government at once, on the ground that such shilly-shallying with a matter of such importance cannot be allowed",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To procrastinate."
],
"links": [
[
"procrastinate",
"procrastinate"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal) To procrastinate."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English informal terms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1991 January 7, Michael Duffy, “The Two George Bushes: At Home—A Case of Doing Nothing”, in Time:",
"text": "The shilly-shallying performance on domestic issues that has marked Bush's first two years in office is not the result of ineptitude.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2023 February 11, Janan Ganesh, “After Germany's fall, which is the paragon nation?”, in FT Weekend, page 22:",
"text": "Then Germany lost its halo. It shilly-shallied over Ukraine.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To vacillate."
],
"links": [
[
"vacillate",
"vacillate"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal) To vacillate."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈʃɪliˌʃæli/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-æli"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "shilly and shally"
}
],
"word": "shilly-shally"
}
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"English verbs",
"Pages with 1 entry",
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"Rhymes:English/æli"
],
"etymology_text": "A reduplication of shall I? An older form was Shill-I-shall-I.",
"forms": [
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"form": "more shilly-shally",
"tags": [
"comparative"
]
},
{
"form": "most shilly-shally",
"tags": [
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}
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{
"ref": "1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 16, in Adam Bede […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:",
"text": "Irwine would think him a shilly-shally fellow ever after.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Indecisive; wavering."
],
"links": [
[
"Indecisive",
"indecisive"
],
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"waver",
"waver"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal) Indecisive; wavering."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈʃɪliˌʃæli/"
},
{
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}
],
"word": "shilly-shally"
}
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"English nouns with unknown or uncertain plurals",
"English verbs",
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"etymology_text": "A reduplication of shall I? An older form was Shill-I-shall-I.",
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"Indecision; irresolution."
],
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"(informal) Indecision; irresolution."
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},
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"word": "shilly-shally"
}
Download raw JSONL data for shilly-shally meaning in All languages combined (5.6kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (4ba5975 and 4ed51a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.