noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The act of saying "haw", in intermission or hesitation of speech.

   "Blushing and stammering, awkward pauses, hemmings and hawings, tremblings of voice, and confusion in all its shapes there were between them […]"

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of haw form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms

avertbear offdraw asideease offedge offfalter

Example

More examples

"That's why he keeps pausing and hemming and hawing."

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.