hem and haw | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic,US)Todiscuss,deliberate, orcontemplaterather than takingactionor making up one's mind.If youhem and hawlong enough, someone else will do it first.; Tomumbleandprocrastinatein one'sspeech, especially with a reply to a hard question or with voicing a decision on atopicalmatter; to evade a question, giving vague answers; toequivocateortemporize.Synonym:(chiefly Britain, dialectal, archaic)hacker1903,The People of the Abyss, byJack London,Chapter 1The man at the Chief Officehemmed and hawed. 'We make it a rule,' he explained, 'to give no information concerning our clients.' 'But in this case,' I urged, 'it is the client who requests you to give the information concerning himself.' Again hehemmed and hawed.1959July 15,Walt Kelly,Pogo(comic strip),→ISBN, page58:[Pogo:] How can you provide [someone] with scripts what tells him what to say all day long?[…]/ [Howland Owl:] It's a boon to humanity … How many dolts do you know whohems an' hawstheir way thru life? – I gives 'em talk.

Examples:

EN: You hem and haw a little while
ES: Le hablas con cierta timidez
EN: If you hem and haw she'll think you have dozens, and can't keep them straight.
ES: Si no, pensará que tuviste docenas y que no distingues a una de la otra.
EN: Your boss sure does like to hem and haw!
ES: A tu jefe le gusta dudar.
EN: I can hem and haw and waffle about it all day long or put a brick on if it. And dp.
ES: Podemos hablar, y balbucear sobre esto todo el día, o ponemos uno más y ya.
EN: How do we know the KGB isn't one step ahead, that they programed Vishnevsky to hem and haw his way through the legend?
ES: ¿Cómo sabremos que el KGB no está un paso por delante? ¿Ya sabes, que han programado a Vishnevsky para dificultar su camino hacia la leyenda?
EN: Earth... is past the point... where we can hem and haw over gambles or being sure.
ES: La Tierra... ha sobrepasado el punto... en que podamos andar debatiendo sobre "temeridad" o "estar seguros".
EN: You're going to hem and haw and keep me waiting?
ES: ¿Vas a vacilar y hacerme esperar?
EN: And he's gonna hem and haw and "yep" and "nope" and look right past you, like the shower after the shift is more important than the information you need to relay.
ES: Él vacilará, dirá que sí y que no, y te pasará por alto, como si una ducha fuera más importante que la información que tienes que darle.
EN: Every deep thought, every soul-searching utterance, yes, even every hem and haw!
ES: Cada pensamiento profundo, cada toma de conciencia. Sí, incluso cada balbuceo.
EN: Eat before you go. Don't just hem and haw because of him.
ES: Coma antes de irse.No solo carraspee por su culpa.
EN: Seriously, why the hem and haw?
ES: ¿Qué estás tratando de decirme?
EN: Why the hem and haw?
ES: ¿Por qué dudan tanto?
EN: You know, why hem and haw over whether it's... unnatural?
ES: ¿Por qué ponen reparos porque no sea natural?
EN: Well, if it was up to me, I'd be calling the movers, but you know men. He's gonna hem and haw for two and three weeks.
ES: Bueno, si dependiera de mí, estaría llamando a los motores, pero ustedes conocen a los hombres. el va a doblar por dos y tres semanas.
EN: And he will hem and haw and talk about the danger of infection.
ES: Y le dará la vuelta y hablará de peligro de infección.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).