slow-walk

English

Etymology 1

Presumably from a horse being made to walk slowly

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".^[1][2]

Alternative forms

• slow walk

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

slow-walk (third-person singular simple present slow-walks, present participle slow-walking, simple past and past participle slow-walked)

1. (idiomatic, transitive, especially politics) To delay a request or command, to drag one's feet, to stall, to obstruct, to drag out a process.

   Synonyms: drag one's feet, slow roll

   • 1973, testimony in United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit case (regarding labor dispute):^[1]

     many of the men were simply standing around and were purposely ‘slow-walking’ the project...to stretch out the term of employment.

   • 2019 May 15, Elaina Plott, “Ignoring Trump’s Orders, Hoping He’ll Forget”, in The Atlantic‎:

     Since assuming office, Trump has issued many private demands to aides that have either been slow-walked or altogether ignored.

Usage notes

• Frequently used in the passive (“be slow-walked”).
• Similar in meaning to drag one's feet, but the object of slow-walk is either the person whose request is being delayed or the subject being delayed. Also, while drag one's feet has nuance of reluctance, particularly in the face of an unpleasant task (“I’ve been dragging my feet on doing my taxes”), slow-walk emphasizes an adversarial relationship and intentional delaying tactics: “We’re being slow-walked on our proposal – they’re hoping that if they drag it out we’ll give up.”

Etymology 2

Attested since 1962 in Southern (North and South Carolina) dialects of American English; of unknown origin.^[1]

Verb

slow-walk (third-person singular simple present slow-walks, present participle slow-walking, simple past and past participle slow-walked)

1. (transitive) To punish, to chastise.

Usage notes

• Much less common than the “delay” sense.

References

1. On Language: “The Slow-Walk Issue”, William Safire, The New York Times Magazine, January 18, 1998
2. Care and Training of the Tennessee Walking Horse, Joe Webb, 1967, “Whether you are successful or unsuccessful in getting the horse into a running walk, go back into the slow walk occasionally.”

• Dictionary of American Regional English