give pause
Cause one to hesitate, as in The high monthly installment payments gave me pause, or, as Shakespeare put it in Hamlet (3:1): “For in that sleep of death what dreams may come ... Must give us pause.” [c. 1600]
Words Nearby give pause
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
How to use give pause in a sentence
Key findings in these focus groups about what drives voters should give pause to strategists and ad-makers in both parties.
That ought to give pause to the Amalgamated Sorehead Society.
Marjorie Dean, College Senior | Pauline LesterBut it was only the rude and savage in an unfamiliar literature that could give pause in the age of Pope.
The Influence of Old Norse Literature on English Literature | Conrad Hjalmar NordbyIt would67 have been quite sufficient to give pause to any approaching wagon or machine.
Tom Slade's Double Dare | Percy Keese FitzhughIn quickly conceived strategy he began to give pause in his attack, nay, he retreated a step or two.
Rupert of Hentzau | Anthony Hope
Something sufficiently interesting, at any rate, to give pause even to a critic in a hurry.
Since Czanne | Clive Bell
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