hovering

Verb

hover (third-person singular simple present hovers, present participle hovering, simple past and past participle hovered)

1. (transitive) To keep (something, such as an aircraft) in a stationary state in the air.
2. (transitive) Of a bird: to shelter (chicks) under its body and wings; (by extension) of a thing: to cover or surround (something).
   • Castration has a ſtrange effect: it emaſculates both man, beaſt, and bird, and brings them to a near reſemblance of the other ſex. […] Capons have ſmall combs and gills, and look pallid about the head, like pullets; they alſo vvalk vvithout any parade, and hover chickens like hens.1789, Gil[bert] White, “Letter XXXII. To the Same.”, in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, in the County of Southampton: […], London: […] T[homas] Bensley; for B[enjamin] White and Son...
3. (obsolete, transitive) Of a bird or insect: to flap (its wings) so it can remain stationary in the air.
   • O'er the deer Corps ſomtimes her vvings ſhe [an eagle] hovers, / Somtimes the dead breſt vvith her breſt ſhe covers, […]1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[Du Bartas His First Week, or Birth of the World: […].] The Fift Daie of the First Week.”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and...
4. (intransitive) To remain stationary or float in the air.
   • The hummingbird hovered by the plant.
5. (figuratively, intransitive) Sometimes followed by over: to hang around or linger in a place, especially in an uncertain manner.
   • His pen hovered above the paper.

   Synonyms:

   wasp around

6. (figuratively, intransitive) To be indecisive or uncertain; to vacillate, to waver.
   • Filling in the voting form, I hovered between Labour and Liberal Democrat.

See all 13 meanings of hover