Definition of "foot-dragging"

I am glad to be able to say that common honesty, or some shadowy simulacrum of it, revived presently and sent me back to the hotel, though not without terrible foot-draggings, you may be sure.

1918, Francis Lynde, Branded, page 114

The tactics of pace-setting, foot-dragging, least resistance or fence-sitting could be used either in the making of policy or, later, in its implementation.

2005, Clive Archer, Norway Outside the European Union: Norway and European Integration from 1994 to 2004, page 191

Once in the classroom, students also employed foot-dragging strategies to slow the transition from the hall state to the student state.

2008, Maryann Dickar, Corridor Cultures: Mapping Student Resistance at an Urban School, page 154

A Beijing diplomat complained China is “fed up with the footdragging” of Burma's strongman, General Than Shwe, and his inner circle, one of the cables, released by WikiLeaks, reported.

2010 December 9, Ewen MacAskill, “WikiLeaks cables: China ‘fed up’ with Burma's footdragging on reforms”, in The Guardian‎

Given that (English) politicians are noted for foot-dragging on electrification schemes, will they use these new locomotives simply as an excuse to defer more electrification schemes?

2021 March 24, “Open Access: Waiting for the wires”, in RAIL, number 927, page 33