Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🤔 To avoid deciding 🐾 To move quietly
to pussyfoot

to pussyfoot

6 8.6
To avoid making a clear decision or giving a direct answer
  • verb
  • /ˈpʌsiˌfʊt/
  • Informal
: evitar decidir
  • Can I say something? - we're pussyfooting around.
  • pussyfoot around
  • Stop pussyfooting
  • Quit pussyfooting

And so there was no, there's no pussyfooting around that stuff, right?

Examples

Synonyms

to waffle on
vsto pussyfoot
  • Informal
5 9.0

To keep changing your mind and not give a clear answer

is cautious and indirect rather than openly decisive
to shilly-shally
vsto pussyfoot
  • Informal
1 9.9

To hesitate before making a decision

is more about indecision and delay than careful indirectness
to fudge the issue
vsto pussyfoot
  • Informal
1 8.4

To avoid answering a question directly by being unclear

is more cautious and indirect rather than solving or confronting it
to palter
vsto pussyfoot
1 9.9

To speak or act to hide the truth and avoid a clear answer

is cautious and indirect rather than deliberately misleading

How Direct

to pussyfoot
  • Informal
6 8.6
to hesitate
301 2.5

Surface Forms

pussyfoot infinitive
pussyfooted past
pussyfooted past participle
pussyfooting present participle
pussyfoots third person singular

Morphology

pussyfoot = pussy + foot (semi-transparent) = pussy + foot

The sense 'avoid making a clear decision' is a metaphorical extension of 'move cautiously', so the connection to the components is inferable but requires pragmatic inference.

Etymology

Pussyfoot can also mean to avoid making a clear decision or statement by being too cautious or indirect, and it links to the same image of pussy 'cat' + foot. Like stepping softly so you do not upset anyone, to pussyfoot is to 'tip-toe' around an issue instead of speaking plainly.