guadagnare tempo

Literally, “to gain time”. Compare French gagner du temps.

guadagnàre tempo (first-person singular present guadàgno tempo, first-person singular past historic guadagnài tempo, past participle guadagnàto tempo, auxiliary avére)

1. to buy time

   Synonyms: prendere tempo, tergiversare; see also Thesaurus:temporeggiare

   • 2020, Barack Obama, chapter 25, in Chicca Galli, Paolo Lucca, Giuseppe Maugeri, transl., Una terra promessa [A Promised Land], Garzanti Libri:

     Fino a quel momento, in pubblico avevamo rilasciato dichiarazioni generiche, o poco più, nel tentativo di guadagnare tempo.

     So far, we'd issued little more than generic public statements in an effort to buy ourselves time.

     (literally, “Until that moment, in public we had issued general declarations, or little more, in the effort to buy time.”)

2. to do (something) early so as to have more time later on; to precrastinate
3. to save time

• perdere tempo