hum and haw
/ˌhʌm ənd ˈhɔː/
hum and haw verb: to procrastinate; to take a long time before doing something or taking a decision.
Verb
hum and haw (third-person singular simple present hums and haws, present participle humming and hawing, simple past and past participle hummed and hawed)
- To procrastinate; to take a long time before doing something or taking a decision.
- We hummed and hawed before finally deciding to buy this house.
hum and haw meaning in Tamil and Malayalam
hum and haw in Malayalam
- vacillate, hesistate, dither
- മുക്കിയും മൂളിയും തീരുമാനത്തിലെത്തുക, മുക്കിയും മൂളിയും നിൽക്കുക, സംസാരമദ്ധ്യേ സന്ദേഹിക്കുക, അറച്ചുനില്ക്കുക, അറയ്ക്കുക, ഇടറുക
Forms of hum and haw
| third-person singular present | hums and haws |
|---|---|
| present participle | humming and hawing |
| past participle | hummed and hawed |
| past | hummed and hawed |
| alternative form | hem and haw |
| alternative form | hum and ha |
| alternative form | um and ah |
| alternative form | um and aw |
Questions about hum and haw
- What does hum and haw mean?
- Hum and haw means to procrastinate; to take a long time before doing something or taking a decision.
- What is hum and haw in Tamil?
- Hum and haw in Tamil is கனை. See Hum and haw meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is hum and haw?
- Hum and haw is a verb.
- How do you pronounce hum and haw?
- Hum and haw is pronounced /ˌhʌm ənd ˈhɔː/.
- What is the past tense of hum and haw?
- The past tense of hum and haw is hummed and hawed.
Words near hum and haw in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hum and haw (page history and authors); hum and haw (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hum and haw (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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: “hum and haw.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hum_and_haw. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.