hesitate

• hæsitate (archaic)

From Latin haesitatus, past participle of haesitare, intensive of haerere (“to hesitate, stick fast; to hang or hold fast”). Displaced native Old English wandian.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɛzɪteɪt/

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hesitate (third-person singular simple present hesitates, present participle hesitating, simple past and past participle hesitated)

1. (intransitive) To stop or pause respecting decision or action; to be in suspense or uncertainty as to a determination.

   He hesitated whether to accept the offer or not; men often hesitate in forming a judgment.

   • September 1, 1742, Alexander Pope, letter to Racine

     I shall not hesitate to declare myself very cordially, in regard to some particulars about which you have desired an answer.

2. (intransitive) To stammer; to falter in speaking.
3. (transitive, poetic, rare) To utter with hesitation or to intimate by a reluctant manner.
   • a. 1724, Alexander Pope, The Ms. at Longleat

     Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike.

• This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

• (to stop respecting decision or action): demur, falter, mammer, scruple, waver; see also Thesaurus:hesitate
• (to falter in speaking): balbucinate, balbutiate, falter, hem, haw, stammer, stutter
• (to utter with hesitation): falter

• hesitant
• hesitation

• hesitate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• hesitate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• hesitate at OneLook Dictionary Search

• athetise, hatesite