Examples Word Origin
verb (used without object) to utter a sound representing a hesitation or pause in speech. Show More
Origin of haw 1 First recorded in 1625–35; imitative
(used as a word of command to a horse or other draft animal, usually directing it to turn to the left.) Show More
verb (used with or without object) to turn or make a turn to the left: The horse refused to haw. Show More
Origin of haw 2 1835–45, Americanism haw! look! of Middle English hawen, Old English hāwian; akin to Latin cavēre to beware
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for hawing Contemporary Examples of hawing After some hemming and hawing , Yusaf finally replied with, “Why do you have to insult the Prophet?”
After much hemming and hawing —because everything moves slowly in the palace—they said yes.
After much hemming and hawing , he finally settled on a single word to describe the finale: "victorious."
After 500 pages of hemming and hawing by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Roethlisberger was never criminally charged.
“It was the only part of the script I was hemming and hawing over whether to use the language from the comic book,” Vaughn said.
Historical Examples of hawing She knew the humming and hawing gentleman—had heard him often before.
Humming and hawing are ludicrous embellishments to a discourse.
Whereupon the three were silent, save for a trifle of hemming and hawing .
Old Mac has got the shoot direct; no humming and hawing , but 'Out you go!'
And after looking about him and humming and hawing , 'Won't you sit?'
British Dictionary definitions for hawing the round or oval fruit (a pome) of the hawthorn, usually red or yellow, containing one to five seeds another name for hawthorn Show More
Word Origin for haw Old English haga, identical with haga hedge ; related to Old Norse hagi pasture
an inarticulate utterance, as of hesitation, embarrassment, etc; hem Show More
(intr) to make this sound hem and haw or hum and haw See hem 2 (def. 3) Show More
Word Origin for haw C17: of imitative origin
Word Origin for haw of unknown origin
the nictitating membrane of a horse or other domestic animal Show More
Word Origin for haw C15: of unknown origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for hawing v. "hesitate in speech," 1580s, imitative. Related: Hawed ; hawing . The noun in this sense is from c.1600. Haw-haw "style of affected enunciation" is from 1841, imitative.
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n. "enclosure," Old English haga "enclosure, hedge," from Proto-Germanic *hag- (cf. Old Norse hagi , Old Saxon hago , German Hag "hedge;" Middle Dutch hage , Dutch haag , as in the city name The Hague ). See hag and hedge . Meaning "fruit of the hawthorn bush" (Old English) is perhaps short for *hægberie .
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with hawing The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
