get off the dime

Sl. to start moving; to get out of a stopped position. Why don't you get off the dime and complete some of these projects that you started? As soon as the board of directors gets off the dime on this proposal, we will have some action.

Take action, especially following a time of indecision or delay. For example, It's time this administration got off the dime and came up with a viable budget. This expression originated in the 1920s in dance-halls as an imperative for dancers to get moving. By 1926 it had been extended to other activities.

To move or to stop wasting time. Back in the 1920s and '30s, taxi dancers were female dance hall employees whose livelihood was dancing with any men who paid for the opportunity. The usual fee was ten cents, but that's not what “dime” in “get off the dime” meant. Dancing with man after man for hours on end was tiring business, and the women often draped themselves over their partners and moved their feet as little as possible, no more than the width of a dime. Although the men didn't object, dance hall managers did. That sort of mobility might lead to hankypanky that would invite attention from the police and other enforcers of public morality. “Get off the dime” was the order, whereupon the women were then obliged to take more energetic dance steps.