Putting Off: English Vocabulary List

to purposefully act slowly

"Stop dragging your feet and decide."

"The government is dragging its feet on passing the new environmental laws that everyone is waiting for."

refusal or cancellation of an invitation, offer, or plan with intention of accepting it or doing it at another time instead

"He took a rain check on dinner."

"He could not make the movie tonight so he asked for a rain check for next week."

to put something off in order to gain more time

"He is just trying to buy time."

"The politician gave a long speech to buy time while his team negotiated behind the scenes."

to keep postponing problems one must deal with

"They always kick the can down the road."

"Instead of addressing the budget crisis, the politicians decided to kick the can down the road once again."

used to refer to something that is temporarily inactive or postponed

"Put that plan on ice for now."

"The movie project is on ice until the director finishes his current film in six months."

to refrain from taking action when one should

"Don't just sit on your hands."

"The government was criticized for sitting on its hands while the economy continued to deteriorate rapidly."

used to show indecision over something

"I am still on the fence about this issue."

"The undecided voter is still on the fence about which candidate to support in the election."

to decide to do something that needs to taken care of right now at another time

"Do not put off until tomorrow what you can do today."

"My brother always puts off until tomorrow what he can do today and then rushes to finish everything."

to try to delay the occurrence of something so that one can prevent it from happening or have more time to properly prepare for it

"He was just playing for time during the interview."

"The witness was playing for time because he did not want to give an answer that might hurt his friend."

in a suspended state to be considered and dealt with in the future

"My call is on hold."

"I have been on hold for twenty minutes waiting to speak to a customer service representative at the bank."