Dilatoriness

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state or quality of being dilatory. uncountable, usually

    "Nor when he got home was he much more inclined to any resolute line of action […] for he got no pen and paper, and he dawdled over his teacup with the utmost dilatoriness, putting off, as it were, the evil day."

  2. 2
    slowness as a consequence of not getting around to it wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
dalliancedallyingdawdlinghesitationindolenceinertia

Example

More examples

"Nor when he got home was he much more inclined to any resolute line of action […] for he got no pen and paper, and he dawdled over his teacup with the utmost dilatoriness, putting off, as it were, the evil day."

Etymology

From dilatory + -ness.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.