Green’s Dictionary of Slang

weak, dithering, ineffectual.

1916		Nation 29 June 687/3: Because he was a man of Wilson’s type, temperamentally and intellectually, he was exposed to that vice of ‘pussy-footing’ which will account for all our Ills.
1920		S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 371: She’s an old cat, like her pussyfooting, hand-holding husband.
1927		(con. 1910s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 353: I’m bringing a whale of a lot more souls into churches than any of these pussy-footing tin saints that’re afraid to laugh and jolly people.
1949		Time 9 May 24/1: Pussyfooting Tom Connally thought Acheson went ‘a little too far,’ in his answer [DA].
1966		C. Stead Cotters’ England (1980) 235: I just had to tick off that damn, pussy-footing, pale pink journalist, Robin Bramble!
1979		G. Jackson ‘Toeing the Line’ in Body Politic (Toronto) No. 25 Aug. in Jay & Young (1979) 158: Not as pussyfooting or sententious as the British press.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 4: [B]lowhard bloggers and their tattle texts? Pussyfooting punks all.