Word.ws English Dictionary

giving pause

giving pause is the present participle and gerund of give pause.

Meaning of give pause

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.

Questions about giving pause

What is giving pause the present participle and gerund of?
Giving pause is the present participle and gerund of give pause.

Words near giving pause in the dictionary

  1. giving one's right arm
  2. giving one's word
  3. giving oneself airs
  4. giving out
  5. giving over
  6. giving pause
  7. giving paw
  8. giving pursuit
  9. giving rise to
  10. giving somebody time
  11. giving someone a big head

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: giving pause (page history and authors); 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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Cite this entry: “giving pause.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/giving_pause. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.