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shillyshally

shil·ly-shal·ly
S s

Transcription

    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • [shil-ee-shal-ee]
    • /ˈʃɪl iˌʃæl i/
    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • [shil-ee-shal-ee]
    • /ˈʃɪl iˌʃæl i/

Definitions of shillyshally word

  • verb without object shillyshally to show indecision or hesitation; be irresolute; vacillate. 1
  • verb without object shillyshally to waste time; dawdle. 1
  • noun plural shillyshally irresolution; indecision; vacillation: It was sheer shilly-shally on his part. 1
  • adjective shillyshally irresolute; undecided; vacillating. 1
  • adverb shillyshally irresolutely. 1
  • verb shillyshally to be indecisive, esp over unimportant matters; hesitate 0
See all 9 definitions of shillyshally

Information block about the term

Origin of shillyshally

First appearance:

before 1690
One of the 49% oldest English words
1690-1700; orig. repeated question, shall I? shall I? later altered on the model of its synonym dilly-dally

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Shillyshally

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Full grammatical hierarchy of Shillyshally

shillyshally popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 32% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.
According to our data most of word are more popular. This word is almost not used. It has a much more popular synonym.

shillyshally usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

See also

Matching words

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