hem and haw ant
1hesitate — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) v. i. falter, waiver, shrink, demur; pause. See doubt, stammering, unwillingness. II (Roget s IV) v. Syn. falter, stutter, fluctuate, vacillate, pause, stop, hold off, hold back, be dubious, be uncertain …
2oscillate — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) v. i. vibrate (see oscillation); hesitate, shilly shally, hem and haw, blow hot and cold. See doubt, changeableness II (Roget s IV) v. 1. [To swing] Syn. palpitate, vibrate, sway; see swing 1 , wave 3 ,… …
3waver — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) v. i. vacillate, fluctuate, hesitate; sway, tremble, totter; undulate; teeter. See doubt, oscillation. II (Roget s IV) v. Syn. fluctuate, vacillate, hesitate, dillydally, seesaw, deliberate, reel, teeter …
4hedge — [n] boundary, obstacle, especially one made of plants barrier, bush, enclosure, fence, guard, hedgerow, hurdle, protection, quickset, screen, shrubbery, thicket, windbreak; concepts 429,470 hedge [v1] avoid, dodge beat around the bush*, be… …
5doubt — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) Indecision Nouns 1. doubt, dubiousness, dubiety; unbelief, skepticism, pyrrhonism, disbelief; agnosticism, irreligion; incredulity, discredit; credibility gap, image spill. See improbability, dejection.… …
6trim — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) adj. neat, well ordered, compact, tidy, spruce, smart; slim, lean. v. order, tidy, adjust, dress, arrange; decorate, ornament, adorn; defeat; cheat; balance, equalize; cut, lop, shear, prune, barber;… …
7mumble — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) v. t. mutter, murmur, mouth. See stammering. II (Roget s IV) v. Syn. mutter, murmur, utter, whine, whimper, rumble, grumble, maunder, ramble on, whisper, speak indistinctly, speak inarticulately, swallow …
8sway — [n] strong influence amplitude, authority, clout, command, control, dominion, empire, expanse, government, jurisdiction, mastery, might, power, predominance, range, reach, regime, reign, rule, run, scope, sovereignty, spread, stretch, sweep;… …
9quibble — [n] objection, complaint artifice, cavil, criticism, dodge, duplicity, equivocation, evasion, hair splitter*, nicety, niggle*, nit picker*, pretense, prevarication, protest, quiddity, quirk, shift, sophism, subterfuge, subtlety; concepts 46,52… …
10shift — [n1] switch, fluctuation about face*, alteration, bend, change, changeover, conversion, deflection, deviation, displacement, double, fault, modification, move, passage, permutation, rearrangement, removal, shifting, substitution, tack, transfer,… …
