Word.ws English Dictionary

give pause

give pause verb: to cause (someone) to hesitate and think carefully about something, giving (the person) cause to be unsure or concerned about something.

Verb

give pause (third-person singular simple present gives pause, present participle giving pause, simple past gave pause, past participle given pause)

  1. (idiomatic) To cause (someone) to hesitate and think carefully about something, giving (the person) cause to be unsure or concerned about something.
    • I was going to put up the new logo, since a majority of people like it a little better than the old one, but the ferocity of those who think it's terrible gives me pause.
    • Here is a fact that will give you pause: some states do not publish the voting records of their legislators.

Forms of give pause

third-person singular presentgives pause
present participlegiving pause
pastgave pause
past participlegiven pause

Questions about give pause

What does give pause mean?
Give pause means to cause (someone) to hesitate and think carefully about something, giving (the person) cause to be unsure or concerned about something.
What part of speech is give pause?
Give pause is a verb.
What is the past tense of give pause?
The past tense of give pause is gave pause.

Words near give pause in the dictionary

  1. give oneself airs
  2. give or take
  3. give out
  4. give out stink
  5. give over
  6. give pause
  7. give paw
  8. give place
  9. give pursuit
  10. give rise to
  11. give some skin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: give pause (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-give pause.ogg.

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