| Main Entry: | alternate |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | take turns, change back and forth |
Synonyms: |
act reciprocally, alter, blow hot and cold, change, come and go, exchange, fill in for, fluctuate, follow, follow in turn, interchange, intersperse, oscillate, relieve, rotate, seesaw, shift, shilly-shally, substitute, sway, vacillate, vary, waver, yo-yo |
| Notes: | alternate means 'one after the other' or 'each succeeding the other in turn, especially continuously' and alternative means 'one instead of the other' or 'allowing or necessitating a choice between two or more things' |
Antonyms: |
continue |
| Main Entry: | doubt |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | lack confidence in; question |
Synonyms: |
be apprehensive of, be curious, be dubious, be in a quandary, be puzzled, be uncertain, be undetermined, call in question, challenge, demur, disbelieve, discredit, dispute, distrust, fear, fluctuate, give no credence, harbor suspicion, have qualms, hesitate, imagine, impugn, insinuate, misdoubt, misgive, mistrust, not buy, query, read differently, scruple, shilly-shally, skepticize, smell a rat, surmise, suspect, take dim view of, vacillate, waver, wonder at |
Antonyms: |
be certain, believe, not question, rely, trust |
| Main Entry: | halt |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | hesitate, stutter |
Synonyms: |
be defective, dither, falter, hobble, limp, pause, shilly-shally, stagger, stammer, stumble, vacillate, waver, whiffle, wiggle-waggle |
Antonyms: |
continue, speak smoothly |
| Main Entry: | hedge |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | avoid, dodge |
Synonyms: |
be noncommittal, beat around the bush, blow hot and cold, cop a plea, cop out, duck, equivocate, evade, flip-flop, fudge, give the run around, hem and haw, jive, pass the buck, prevaricate, pussyfoot, quibble, run around, shilly-shally, shuck, shuffle, sidestep, sit on the fence, stall, stonewall, temporize, tergiversate, tergiverse, waffle |
Antonyms: |
confront, face, meet |
| Main Entry: | procrastinate |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | delay, put off doing |
Synonyms: |
adjourn, be dilatory, cool*, dally, dawdle, defer, drag, drag one's feet, give the run around, goldbrick, hang fire, hesitate, hold off, lag*, let slide, linger, loiter, pause, play a waiting game, play for time, poke*, postpone, prolong, protract, retard, shilly-shally, stall, stay, suspend, tarry, temporize, wait |
Antonyms: |
accelerate, advance, complete, do, finish, go ahead, quicken |
| Main Entry: | vacillate |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | go back and forth |
Synonyms: |
alternate, be indecisive, be irresolute, change, change mind, dither, fence-straddle, fluctuate, hedge, hem and haw, hesitate, hover, oscillate, pause, pussyfoot around, reel, rock, run hot and cold, seesaw, shilly-shally, stagger, straddle, sway, swing, waffle, waver, whiffle, yo-yo |
Antonyms: |
remain, stay |
| Main Entry: | vary |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | change |
Synonyms: |
alter, alternate, assort, be unlike, blow hot and cold, convert, depart, deviate, differ, digress, disagree, displace, dissent, divaricate, diverge, diversify, divide, fluctuate, hem and haw, inflect, interchange, modify, mutate, part, permutate, range, separate, shilly-shally, swerve, take turns, transform, turn, variegate, yo-yo |
Antonyms: |
remain, stay |
| Main Entry: | hem and haw |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | hesitate |
Synonyms: |
back and fill, beat around the bush, beg the question, dance around, equivocate, euphemize, fudge and mudge, hum and haw, mince words, shilly-shally, tapdance |
| Main Entry: | waste time |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | idle away time |
Synonyms: |
burn daylight, dally, dawdle, delay, dillydally, fiddle about, fritter away time, goof off, kill time, linger, loiter, lollygag, lose time, pass the time, piddle, procrastinate, shilly-shally, take one's own sweet time, take one's time, tarry, while away the time |
| Main Entry: | shilly-shally |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | procrastinate |
Synonyms: |
be irresolute, blow hot and cold, dally, dawdle, dodge, fluctuate, halt, hesitate, stall, trifle, vacillate, waver |