Hemming
name, noun, verb
name, noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The act of saying "hem", 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 present participle and gerund of hem form-of, gerund, participle, present
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"That's why he keeps pausing and hemming and hawing."
Etymology
* As an English, Scottish, and Swedish surname, from the Old Norse personal name Hemingr, variant of Hæmingr, itself of uncertain origin, possibly from hamr, hemingr (“form, shape; skin of an animal”). This word may have been borrowed into Old English as hemming (“a rawhide boot”). * As a German surname, variant of Hemme.
More for "hemming"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.