hang fire

Idioms  

1. Delay, as in The advertising campaign is hanging fire until they decide how much to spend on it. This expression originally referred to the 17th-century flintlock musket, where the priming powder ignited but often failed to explode the main charge, a result called hanging fire. [c. 1800]

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Example Sentences

Rolling Stones podcast Hang Fire said an announcement about the album was due in September, with the release coming in October.

From BBC

Writing in The Guardian, he said that crises “don’t take holidays, and don’t politely hang fire – certainly not to suit the convenience of a departing PM and the whims of two potential successors.”

From Seattle Times

Moss said that officials at the ski resort pulled all other recreators down from the mountain out of concern that snow hanging above the avalanche’s crown — a so-called hang fire — might put others in danger.

From Seattle Times

Shauna Guinn, co-owner of Hang Fire in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, said the decision to close after a decade of building the business was "heart-breaking".

From BBC

Ms Guinn, who owns the Hang Fire business with her partner Sam Evans, had to make 16 members of staff redundant and contact 1,300 customers to cancel their reservations last week.

From BBC

Related Words

• adjourn
• arrest
• bar
• cease
• defer
• discontinue
• eject
• exclude
• file
• halt
• interrupt
• postpone
• put off
• reject
• rule out
• shelve
• stay
• waive
• withhold