hesitate - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Italic *-āō

English hesitate

Borrowed from Latin haesitātus, perfect passive participle of haesitō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), intensive of haereō (“to hesitate, stick fast; to hang or hold fast”). Displaced native Old English wandian. Compare French hésiter.

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.

to stop or pause respecting decision or action

to stammer; to falter in speaking

hesitate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of hesitar combined with te