Mark time

When the colonel has given the signal for the music to beat time, he will give the caution for the movement as above; and the lieutenant colonel will immediately give the word to the right wing to mark time.

Next, they were ordered to converge on Bischofsburg. They had spent the morning marking time there.

[…] the drum line is a section that needs considerable time to rehearse on its own. […] Always have members stand at attention, in a formation that makes senses […] and reflects formations/configurations actually encourted in the show […], and have them mark time while rehearsing.

Monday noon I chased over to the Auditorium and they was only about eighty in line ahead o' me[…] While I was markin' time I looked at the pitchers o' the different actors,

“If I can put money in their pockets and play some New Orleans music, that’s what I can do.” But he’s only marking time until he can return to New Orleans.

She had met plenty of lazy professionals in her time, people content to mark time until retirement, but none of them had still been athletic in their mid forties.

Chelsea are in the bottom half of the Premier League, out of the Champions League and will not be in it next season while Lampard is now effectively marking time and filling the manager's office until a new occupant can be found.