Is there an English phrase for an inability to actually *leave* already?

I coined a phrase a few years back. I call it conversational dieseling. As those familiar with internal combustion engines will tell you, dieseling happens when a gasoline engine is switched off but enough fuel mixture still gets into the cylinders and ignites from the heat, causing the engine to sputter on. I think it describes the inability to end a conversation (or a meeting) pretty well, if I do say so myself. :)

To do such is to dilly-dally:

dil·ly-dal·lied, dil·ly-dal·lying, dil·ly-dal·lies

To waste time, especially in indecision; dawdle or vacillate

Informal: to loiter or vacillate

Of note, I think, is the relation to vacillate, that tells us:

To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another.

And then coupled with loiter:

To stand idly about; linger aimlessly.

In context, the optional actions are to talk, or to leave. You're dilly-dallying.

Note: Usage of this might be primarily a UK thing and certainly not exclusive to talking in doorways, but let's see what you and the rest of us think.

In social work, doorknobbing is the word sometimes used to describe the phenomenon of delaying the important personal revelations until the end of the therapy session when goodbyes are being said.

This option has the advantage of actually being in circulation. It has the disadvantage that it also carries one or two very different meanings of a frank sexual nature.

Not a very reliable source, but The Urban Dictionary defines an Irish goodbye as:

A goodbye taking more than 1 hour and in which a new conversation begins. People can spend hours on end standing in the driveway talking, during an Irish Goodbye. Not limited to Irish people, but very common among large Irish Families.

However, that entry has more downvotes than upvotes, and is outranked by what is pretty much the inverse definition:

leaving the bar or anywhere for that matter, without closing niceties, like a kiss goodbye to that annoying girl or mentioning something to your friends

I typically hear and use the phrase long goodbye. Unfortunately, searching for anything to back me up just finds a book, a movie and a song with the same title.

Other options:

• awkward goodbye (also covers emotionally awkward departures)
• lingering conversations (more focused on the conversation; less on the goodbye)

You could also expressions such as deathtrap, time-sink or time killer to describe the situations or people who cause them. Here are some example uses:

I would have left hours ago if not for the long goodbye.

We often lose ourselves in lingering conversations.

Leaving home typically involves a series of awkward goodbyes.

Avoid the marketing department — they are a complete deathtrap and you'll never get anything done.