Meaning & use
drag feet
Last updated
Meaning
phraseidiominformal
to deliberately act slowly or delay doing something, often because you do not want to do it.
Grammar: Used with a possessive word before 'feet' (my, your, his, her, our, their) and often followed by 'on' or 'about': drag your feet on a decision.
Patterns
- drag your feet
- drag your feet on something
- drag your feet about doing something
The company is dragging its feet on the new safety rules.
Stop dragging your feet and give me an answer.
They dragged their feet for months before finally signing the contract.
Word forms
| third person singular | drags feet |
|---|---|
| past tense | dragged feet |
| past participle | dragged feet |
| -ing form | dragging feet |
Common combinations
- drag your feet on something
- The government is dragging its feet on climate action.
- drag your feet about doing something
- He's dragging his feet about moving to a new city.
- accuse someone of dragging their feet
- Voters accused the mayor of dragging her feet on housing.
- keep dragging your feet
- If you keep dragging your feet, we'll miss the deadline.
Synonyms and how they differ
- delay
- Delay is neutral and can be used in formal contexts; drag your feet suggests a deliberate or reluctant slowness.
- stall
- Stall means to delay in order to gain time, often by using excuses; drag your feet focuses on being slow because you don't want to act.
- procrastinate
- Procrastinate is more formal and often refers to putting off tasks you could do now; drag your feet is informal and often about resisting something.
Opposites
Word family
- drag verb
- To pull something heavy along the ground; also used in this idiom.
- foot-dragging noun
- The act of deliberately delaying something.
Commonly confused: drag feet or drag your heels?
drag feet vs drag your heels
This is a variant of the same idiom, with the same meaning. 'Drag your feet' is more common in American English; 'drag your heels' is also used, especially in British English.
Practice
The committee has been ______ on the issue of pay raises for six months.
Choose one answer.
The present perfect continuous 'has been' requires the -ing form 'dragging', and the idiom uses the plural 'feet' even for a singular subject like 'committee'. 'Dragging its foot' is wrong because the idiom is fixed with 'feet'; 'drag its feet' is the base form and doesn't fit after 'has been'; 'dragged its feet' would be present perfect simple, which is possible but less natural here with 'for six months' and the continuous focus.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “drag feet”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.