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How do you express "strolling/pacing back and forth"? For example, if you are waiting for someone in front of a bus stop, you might walk back and forth a bit on a stretch of side walk.
I stumbled across 踱来踱去 duó lái duó qù "strolling/pacing back and forth" while doing some reading a while back. However, I'm not sure how common this expression is because it took some effort to type, and the example sentences I could find seem a bit literary.
Are there some more common ways to express this idea?
踱 is a bit formal. 走来走去 or 晃来晃去 will be more colloquial.
踱步= pacing
来回踱步= pacing around
踱来踱去= pacing back and forth
Since 'pacing' means "repeatedly walking back and forth across. " We can say 踱步, 来回踱步 and 踱来踱去 are basically describing the same action.
Example:
在房间里踱步, 在房间里来回踱步, 在房间里踱来踱去
徘徊
ABC
V.
1 pace back and forth
Oxford
他独自在江边徘徊。
He wandered alone by the river.
