Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
verb
To delay a request or command, to drag one's feet, to stall, to obstruct, to drag out a process.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: especially, idiomatic, transitive
Topics: government, politics
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: drag one's feet, slow roll
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To punish, to chastise.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
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".
Attested since 1962 in Southern (North and South Carolina) dialects of American English; of unknown origin.
