🗓️ Idiom: Dragging Your Feet (idiom / phrase)
💬 Meaning
- Delaying or being slow to act on something.
- Showing a lack of enthusiasm or motivation to complete a task.
🧠 Example Sentences
- The team was dragging their feet on the new software update.
- If you keep dragging your feet, we’ll miss the client deadline.
- She stopped dragging her feet once she realized how important the project was.
🏛️ Origin
The expression “dragging your feet” originally described someone walking slowly because they were tired or unwilling to move. Over time, it came to mean acting slowly or delaying tasks on purpose, especially in work or decision-making.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
Management asked why the staff were ___________ with the product launch.
Answer
dragging their feet
2. Choose the correct option:
If someone is “dragging their feet,” they are:
a) Working quickly and efficiently
b) Avoiding responsibility
c) Moving or deciding very slowly
Answer
c) Moving or deciding very slowly
3. Change the sentence using “dragging your feet”:
“You are taking too long to finish this report.”
Answer
You’re dragging your feet on finishing this report.
ℹ️ Other Useful Pages
📚 Learning Resources
👉 Productivity in the Workplace Idioms
👉 Business English Idioms List
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Rob is a CELTA qualified English teacher with 15 years of international experience. He has a BSc and PGDip from Loughborough and St Andrews universities in the UK. He has taught in Thailand and Saudi Arabia and now works with professionals worldwide.
