slow march

plural slow marches

1. sometimesgovernmentA controlled walking pace in a deliberate, steady, rhythmic manner.

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

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

   1 more example

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

   1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Further Communications on Business”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 72

2. entertainmentA march with a relatively slow tempo.

   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.

   1946 January 21, “Music: Berlin Hit”, in Time

3. broadlyidiomaticA progression or unfolding of events which occurs in an unhurried, steady, deliberate manner.

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

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

   2 more examples

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

   1835, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 12, in The Monikins

   "[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."

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