Adjacent Words

Hesitation definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

HESITA'TION, n. A pausing or delay in forming an opinion or commencing action; doubt;suspension of opinion or decision, from uncertainty what is proper to be decided. When evidence is clear, we may decide without hesitation.
1. A stopping in speech; intermission between words; stammering.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: indecision in speech or action [syn: hesitation, vacillation, wavering]
2: a certain degree of unwillingness; "a reluctance to commit himself"; "his hesitancy revealed his basic indisposition"; "after some hesitation he agreed" [syn: reluctance, hesitancy, hesitation, disinclination, indisposition]
3: the act of pausing uncertainly; "there was a hesitation in his speech" [syn: hesitation, waver, falter, faltering]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 14th century 1. an act or instance of hesitating 2. a pausing or faltering in speech

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Hesitation Hes`i*ta"tion, n. [L. haesitatio: cf. F. h['e]sitation.] 1. The act of hesitating; suspension of opinion or action; doubt; vacillation. 2. A faltering in speech; stammering. --Swift.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(hesitations) 1. Hesitation is an unwillingness to do something, or a delay in doing it, because you are uncertain, worried, or embarrassed about it. He promised there would be no more hesitations in pursuing reforms. ...the prime minister's hesitation to accept a ceasefire. N-VAR: oft N in -ing see also hesitate 2. If you say that you have no hesitation in doing something, you are emphasizing that you will do it immediately or willingly because you are certain that it is the right thing to do. The board said it had no hesitation in unanimously rejecting the offer... PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR in -ing [emphasis] 3. If you say that someone does something without hesitation, you are emphasizing that they do it immediately and willingly. The great majority of players would, of course, sign the contract without hesitation... PHRASE: usu PHR after v, PHR with cl [emphasis]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. See hesitancy. 2. Faltering, stammering, difficulty of utterance.

Moby Thesaurus

Fabian policy, Micawberism, abeyance, averseness, backwardness, balbuties, bashfulness, boggle, boggling, break, caesura, calculation, canniness, capriciousness, care, careful consideration, carefulness, caution, cautiousness, cease-fire, chance, chanciness, changeableness, circumspection, compunction, courtesan, day off, delay, deliberate stages, deliberateness, deliberation, demimondaine, demimonde, demirep, demur, demurral, diffidence, dilatoriness, discretion, doubt, drop, dubiety, dysphemia, erraticism, erraticness, falter, faltering, fancy woman, fickleness, gingerliness, guardedness, hedge, hedging, heed, heedfulness, hesitance, hesitancy, hesitating, hetaera, hold-off, holiday, incalculability, incertitude, indecision, indecisiveness, indemonstrability, indeterminacy, indetermination, indeterminism, indisposition, interim, interlude, intermezzo, intermission, intermittence, interruption, interval, irresolution, judiciousness, kept, lapse, laxness, layoff, letup, luck, lull, mindfulness, mistrust, modesty, mugwump, objection, palilalia, pause, pawkiness, prior consultation, procrastination, protest, prudence, prudentialness, qualm, qualm of conscience, qualmishness, randomness, recess, recoil, regardfulness, reluctance, remission, remissness, respite, rest, safeness, safety first, scruple, scrupulosity, scrupulousness, shilly-shally, shilly-shallying, shrinking, shyness, slackness, slowness, slowness to act, solicitude, stall, stammer, stammering, stand-down, stay, stickling, stutter, stuttering, suspense, suspensefulness, suspension, temporization, tentativeness, thoroughness, to-and-fro, traulism, truce, unaccountability, uncertainness, uncertainty, uncertainty principle, uncommunicativeness, undecidedness, undeterminedness, unforeseeableness, unprecipitateness, unpredictability, unprovability, unsureness, unverifiability, vacation, vacillation, wavering, whimsicality, whore