Word.ws English Dictionary

havering

UK/ˈheɪvəɹɪŋ/

havering is the present participle and gerund of haver.

Adjective

havering (comparative more havering, superlative most havering)

  1. Hesitant; indecisive.
    • Added to the obstacles which reforming ministers like Turgot […] now had to face was the king's havering inconstancy.2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 300
  2. Long-winded

Meaning of haver

Verb

haver (third-person singular simple present havers, present participle havering, simple past and past participle havered)

  1. (UK) To hem and haw.
    • This didn't seem at all unlikely, but when I none the less havered, he insisted that his 'Egyptian fortune-teller' had confirmed it.1988, Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 154
  2. (Scotland) To talk foolishly; to chatter.
    • To business, and no more havers.1897, Stanley John Weyman, chapter XIV, in Shrewsbury
    Synonyms:
    babble, haiver, maunder

See all 7 meanings of haver

Noun

havering (uncountable)

  1. Indecision, indecisive behaviour.
    • Havering over the future of the Barnard Castle-Tebay and Penrith line now seems concluded.1961 September, “Talking of Trains: Branch line report”, in Modern Railways, page 516

Proper noun capitalized: Havering

Havering

  1. A London borough on the east side of Greater London, laying just outside the conurbation.

Forms of havering

comparativemore havering
superlativemost havering

Origin of havering

From haver + -ing.

Questions about havering

What does havering mean?
Havering means hesitant; indecisive.
What is havering the present participle and gerund of?
Havering is the present participle and gerund of haver.
What part of speech is havering?
Havering can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce havering?
Havering is pronounced /ˈheɪvəɹɪŋ/ (UK).

Words near havering in the dictionary

  1. Havergal
  2. Haverhill
  3. Haverhill fever
  4. Haveri
  5. haverim
  6. havering
  7. Haverkamp
  8. Haverkamps
  9. Haverland
  10. Haverlands
  11. Haverly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: havering (page history and authors); Havering (page history and authors); haver (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: “havering.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/havering. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.