hem and haw
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English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]hem and haw (third-person singular simple present hems and haws, present participle hemming and hawing, simple past and past participle hemmed and hawed)
- (idiomatic, US) To discuss, deliberate, or contemplate rather than taking action or making up one's mind.
- If you hem and haw long enough, someone else will do it first.
- To mumble and procrastinate in one's speech, especially with a reply to a hard question or with voicing a decision on a topical matter; to evade a question, giving vague answers; to equivocate or temporize.
- Synonym: (chiefly Britain, dialectal, archaic) hacker
- 1903, The People of the Abyss, by Jack London, Chapter 1
- The man at the Chief Office hemmed and hawed. 'We make it a rule,' he explained, 'to give no information concerning our clients.' 'But in this case,' I urged, 'it is the client who requests you to give the information concerning himself.' Again he hemmed and hawed.
- 1959 July 15, Walt Kelly, Pogo (comic strip), →ISBN, page 58:
- [Pogo:] How can you provide [someone] with scripts what tells him what to say all day long? […] / [Howland Owl:] It's a boon to humanity … How many dolts do you know who hems an' haws their way thru life? – I gives 'em talk.
Translations
[edit]to contemplate rather than taking action
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to mumble and procrastinate in speech
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