mark time

verb2

1. •
   To march in place, while still in step with the beat.

   • Next, they were ordered to converge on Bischofsburg. They had spent the morning marking time there. — 1989
2. •
   (figurative) To stop making progress temporarily; to wait or stand still.

   • Monday noon I chased over to the Auditorium and they was only about eighty in line ahead o' me[…] While I was markin' time I looked at the pitchers o' the different actors, — 1916