Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective holding back because of doubt or lack of confidence.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of hesitate.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective lacking decisiveness of character; unable to act or decide quickly or firmly

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The experience of not hesitating is what I believe required the formation of Model Muggers.

    Big Trouble For Dangerous High School Girls SVGL 2009

  • I know I was not alone in hesitating, in having to fight very hard against those qualifications, the dreaded "even thoughs" of "I am great BUT NOT THAT GREAT please don't think I am bragging I am sure most other people in the world are way greater than me please don't hate me for being such a boastful wench."

    The Awesome Movement and the Dreaded Even Thoughs karenhealey 2010

  • So taking the creationist line or hesitating is a very understandable reaction for a practical politician.

    Matthew Yglesias » Evolution 2007

  • "Different things," said Ellen, hesitating from the remembrance of her aunt's manner the night before.

    The Wide, Wide World 1892

  • Lucilla, longing as much as she dreaded to see him, felt her heart throb at the sound of each manly footstep on the stair, paled at the sight of coat and trousers of a certain shade, trembled at the sound of a voice that recalled his hesitating tones.

    A Sheaf of Corn Mary E. Mann

  • If he may be capitalized (and surely he was rich enough to be), he might be described as hesitating whether to be a Plutocrat or a Good Citizen; perhaps he was hoping to be both.

    Under the Skylights Henry Blake Fuller 1893

  • His tome was the tone of ordinary conversation, and his speech, while it would not be called hesitating, was exceedingly slow and deliberate.

    Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2 George Frisbie Hoar 1865

  • Still, imagine that small hand lifting the pencil" hesitating" and then marking the white.

    Duma Key King, Stephen, 1947- 2008

  • I've been noticing lately that my car starts kind of hesitating when I'm driving along in first gear (my car's an automatic Ford Escort).

    dulligirl Diary Entry dulligirl 2006

  • A kind of hesitating, jockeying for position goes on that results in one person going first.

    Hair and freedom, then and now 2005

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