hesitate
hesitated; hesitating; hesitates
To hesitate is to pause before doing something, often out of concern or worry.
If you're playing basketball and have a wide-open shot but don't take it right away, you hesitated. Maybe you felt too much pressure to shoot the ball. When people are nervous or worried, they tend to hesitate. Hesitating while speaking is common. In class, if you're not sure you have the right answer, you'll hesitate. When giving bad news, people often hesitate. Sometimes it makes sense to hesitate and sometimes you just need to do what you have to do.
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pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness“Authorities hesitate to quote exact figures”
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types:
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dwell on, linger over
delay
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boggle
hesitate when confronted with a problem, or when in doubt or fear
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hover, linger
move to and fro
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hover, oscillate, vacillate, vibrate
be undecided about something; waver between conflicting positions or courses of action
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falter, waver
be unsure or weak
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shillyshally
be uncertain and vague
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interrupt temporarily an activity before continuing
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synonyms:
pause
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types:
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hem and haw
utter `hems' and `haws'; indicated hesitation
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scruple
hesitate on moral grounds
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type of:
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delay
act later than planned, scheduled, or required
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hem and haw
Vocabulary lists containing hesitate
When twelve-year-old Sophie Brown moves from a California city to a farm her dad has inherited, she is determined to learn how to raise the chickens she finds.
Eleven-year-old Rose Howard, who prefers rules and routines, struggles when a hurricane changes her life in a New York town.
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