1899 Colorado Citizen (Columbus, Texas) 27 July 1/6 [He] doesn't wear any cushions on his political views, nor does he believe in trying to win by pussy-foot methods.

1910 Nebraska State Jrnl. 9 Mar. 6/1 Such campaigning as the men are doing who want to put the saloons back has been a pussyfoot performance of prodigious perfection. It is impossible to extort so much as an echo from the pro-saloon side.

1913 Janesville (Wisconsin) Daily Gaz. 8 Mar. 11/3 The pussyfoot realty man... When the nonadvertiser lacks salable property he pussyfoots around until he lists a few pieces.

1926 E. M. Rhodes Once in Saddle (1927) viii. 254 Why all the conspiracy and the pussyfoot mystery?

1953 I. Brody Gone with Windsors xxviii. 287 A pussyfoot thief had the audacity and skill to climb up to her bedroom and steal her jewelry.

1962 Salisbury (Maryland) Times 31 Aug. 6/4 A pussyfoot or supersensitive policy is a waste of money on the propaganda front in the Cold War.

1974 Country Life 17 Oct. 1108 Covering 38 laps of the circuit..ensured this was no genteel pussyfoot operation.

1991 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 28 Jan. 8/3 Who's to blame? Possibly the Corrective Services Commission with its ‘pussyfoot’ ideas of prison reform and reducing staff?

2004 Sunday Times (Nexis) 3 Oct. 3 Gina Campbell said objections to watersports thrill-seekers were a sign of a ‘pussyfoot society’, and she warned the British spirit of adventure was in danger of being crushed.

1919 Boston Daily Globe 29 Oct. 1/3 Lady Astor telegraphs chairman she will not stand as a ‘pussyfoot candidate’.

1920 Manitoba Free Press 6 Sept. A pussyfoot campaign along the line of American Anti-Saloon League is suggested by leading Bavarian physicians who are petitioning parliament to abolish beer drinking.

1921 Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune 7 June 3/5 Wages required $200, plus food and three bottles of stout per day. I wish to leave my present place because they are pussyfoot.

1923 D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers (N.Y. ed.) 10 Even the word Marsala will smack of preciosity Soon in the pussy-foot West.

1940 D. Thomas Portrait of Artist as Young Dog 217 He'd be knocking back nips without a thought that on the sands at home his friend was alone and pussyfoot at six o'clock.

1958 J. Kesson White Bird Passes ii. 20 ‘I thought Pippins was Pussyfoot,’ Poll protested. ‘He was a great one for the Salvation Army for a while.’

1907 San Antonio (Texas) Gaz. 31 July 6/6 Crane, the softest treading pussy-foot in the upper branch of congress at this period, wants to be the big figure.

1914 L. E. Jackson & C. R. Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 68 Pussy foot... A detective.

1916 Dial. Notes 4 279 Pussy-foot, v.i. To be sly, intriguing, or underhand. ‘That girl goes pussy-footing around.’ Also n. ‘She's a regular pussy-foot.’

1916 in H.S. Truman Dear Bess 210 Everyone says he's a hoss thief and a pussyfoot.

1920 S. Lewis Main St. iv. 46 He had been called many things—loan-shark, skinflint, tightwad, pussyfoot.

1921 E. Pound Let. ?23 Apr. in W. Sutton Pound, Thayer, Watson, & Dial (1994) 218 He is a pussyfoot, he has been sniffing aroun[d] Lewis and Gaudier for six years without getting down to action.

1977 ‘E. Crispin’ Glimpses of Moon xii. 257 Grateful that the creature [sc. a cat] was in both senses a pussyfoot, Fen drank some champagne.

1999 News-Press (Fort Myers, Florida) (Nexis) 25 Mar. 12 a Clinton is a pussyfoot. We should've gone in and cleaned the situation out.

1916 Williamsburg (Iowa) Jrnl.-Tribune 13 Apr. 4/3 Roosevelt declares against pussy-footism, by which, we take it, he is in favor of a fight in the open.

1923 Daily Mail 23 July 7 In Tudor England people sang the music they liked, and read the books they liked. They had real freedom, and there was no pussy~footism.

1926 ‘A. Berkeley’ Wychford Poisoning Case vii. 78 They reached the Man of Kent and ordered the night~caps to which their position as residents entitled them, in defiance of the dictates of a maternal government, pussy~footism and all the other futilities which order our lives for us in these days.

1947 Times 18 Feb. 2/6 It was untrue to say that the tradition of the Labour Party was the pussyfootism of Sir R. Young and Mr. J. H. Hudson.

2006 Kingston (Ont.) Whig-Standard (Nexis) 3 May 6 Political pussyfootism seems to be reaching epidemic proportions.

1902 [implied in: Galveston (Texas) 5 Sept. 6/3 Old Tom Platt has no equal in the pussy-footing line. (at pussyfooting n.)].

1905 Atlanta Constit. 20 Mar. 3 Vice President Charles Warren Fairbanks is pussy-footing it around Washington.

1916 Dial. Notes 4 279 Pussy-foot, v.i. To be sly, intriguing, or underhand. ‘That girl goes pussy-footing around.’

1918 C. Sandburg Cornhuskers 73 In the newspaper office—who are the spooks?.. Who pussyfoots from desk to desk with a speaking forefinger?

1934 D. L. Sayers Nine Tailors 286 When I got out through the porch, I had to pussyfoot pretty gently over that beastly creaking gravel.

1951 E. Paul Springtime in Paris (U.K. ed.) viii. 155 I saw you pussyfooting around the exhibition.

1954 Las Cruces (New Mexico) Sun-News 9 May 3/2 He [sc. a cat] pussyfooted up the steps again.

1971 Suburbanite Economist 29 Dec. iii. 9/3 A cat burglar strikes 13 homes in subdivision areas in one night. In most cases, homeowners were sleeping downstairs while the intruder pussyfooted around downstairs.

1910 Emporia (Kansas) Gaz. 24 Mar. 1/3 The people have a right to full frank statements. This is no time to pussy-foot around for votes.

1916 Woodland (Calf.) Daily Democrat 8 Sept. 2/3 He pussyfooted all right. He declared in grandiloquent style for undiluted Americanism, but he had nothing to say about hyphenism.

1928 Observer 5 Feb. 18/1 While most papers are still ‘pussy-footing’ on the Presidency they called their editors together and afterwards announced a unanimous decision.

1973 Times 16 Oct. 6/6 A Labour Government should not ‘pussyfoot around’ with reform of the Official Secrets Act but scrap it.

1975 B. Wood Killing Gift (1976) iv. i. 129 Why do you pussy~foot, captain?.. Why not just say it—you think Jennifer Gilbert killed him.

1980 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 29 Mar. 937/1 It is time someone was honest enough to stop pussyfooting about.

1993 Guardian 5 Oct. i. 7/7 We have been pussyfooting about this issue for 20 years or more.

2004 Prediction Apr. 41/3 This doesn't mean that you need to pussyfoot around people's feelings.