slow march

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slow march (plural slow marches)

1. (sometimes military) A controlled walking pace in a deliberate, steady, rhythmic manner.
   • 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter 13, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC:

     [T]he Rector emerged erect as a cane, from his garden, and proceeded in slow march, his hands behind him, down the cemetery.

   • c. 1851, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, “The Spectre Lovers”, in Ghost Stories of Chapelizod:

     This was no other than a column of foot soldiers, marching with perfect regularity. . . . On they came at a slow march.

2. (music) A march with a relatively slow tempo.
   • 1946 January 21, “Music: Berlin Hit”, in Time:

     Germany's newest song hit was hummed in streetcars, in movie theaters and at political meetings. . . . Its slow march tune was catchy, and its lyrics fitted Berlin's melancholy mood.

3. (idiomatic, by extension) A progression or unfolding of events which occurs in an unhurried, steady, deliberate manner.
   • 1835, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 12, in The Monikins:

     [S]ome spirits, more audacious than the rest, became restive under the slow march of events.

   • 1904, H. G. Wells, chapter 1, in The Food of the Gods:

     "[T]he venerable order, the broad slow march from precedent to precedent that has made our English people great and this sunny island free—it is all an idle tale."

   • 2005 October 17, Tom Dusevic, “Trust Me, I'm Fair”, in Time:

     For three decades, John Howard has been on a slow march to end centralized wage-fixing.

• slow-march (verb)

• “slow march”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.