| 释义 |
hesitate, v.|ˈhɛzɪteɪt|
[f. L. hæsitāt-, ppl. stem of hæsitāre to stick fast, stammer in speech, be undecided, freq. of hærēre (pa. pple. hæs-um) to stick, adhere, hold fast. Cf. F. hésiter.]
1. intr.
a. To hold back in doubt or indecision; to show, or speak with, indecision; to find difficulty in deciding; to scruple. Const. various preps.
1623Cockeram, Hesitate, to doubt. 1709Shaftesbury Moralist ii. i. in Charac. (1711) II. 237 It must needs become a Sceptick above all Men to hesitate in Matters of Exchange. 1771Goldsm. Hist. Eng. II. 343 The citizens of London hesitated on the demand. 1839Thirlwall Greece VI. 149. 1848 Ruskin Mod. Paint. II. iii. ii. iii. 179 note, He may pause, but he must not hesitate. a1849Poe Tales (1884) I. 93 At the baptismal font I hesitated for a name. 1856De Quincey Confess. (1896) 216 This..surgeon saw no reason whatever in the simple practice of opium-eating for hesitating upon a life-insurance proposal. 1860W. Collins Woman in White I. iv. 33, I hesitated about answering it. 1908Grand Mag. Dec. 612/2 I'm only hesitating over the price.
b. with inf. or clause. (Rarely with vbl. n.)
1755Warburton Serm. xviii. Wks. 1811 X. 3 [They] could never hesitate a moment to conclude [etc.]. 1761Earl Harcourt in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. IV. 440 There was no room to hesitate one moment whether I was to accept such a..distinction. 1763Scrafton Indostan iii. (1770) 69 Admiral Watson, apprehensive he might be reflected on..hesitated signing. 1802Milne in Med. Jrnl. (1804) XII. 452, I have..never hesitated to inoculate every person that has been brought to me.
†c. To be uncertain, be in doubt that. Obs.
1807T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 193 It was no longer possible to hesitate that this acid was composed of carbon and oxygen.
d. spec. in Dancing (see quot. 1919).
1914V. Castle Mod. Dancing iv. 72 In my opinion it is much better to hesitate when the music hesitates. 1919E. Scott All about Latest Dances 87 The term ‘hesitate’, as regards the waltz we are now considering, implies merely that you pause, or move in what appears a faltering manner at a given juncture.
e. To move in an indecisive, faltering manner.
1908H. G. Wells War in Air v. 168 He hesitated towards the door of the cabin. 1917T. S. Eliot Prufrock 27 Regard that woman Who hesitates toward you in the light of the door.
2. To stammer or falter in speech.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Hesitate, to stammer or falter, to hum and haw.
3. trans.
a. To express or say with hesitation.
1735Pope Prol. Sat. 204 Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike. 1794Godwin Cal. Williams i. 6, I hesitated a confused and irresolute answer. 1827Scott Napoleon xxxviii, He humbly hesitated, that he could not safely honour it [a bill]. 1886Lowell Orat. Harvard 8 Nov. Wks. 1890 VI. 160, I choose rather to hesitate my opinion than to assert it roundly.
b. With sentence as quasi-obj.
1816Scott Tales My Landlord II. xii. 311 ‘I am not sure,’ hesitated Edith. 1881Mrs. J. H. Riddell Sen. Partner xvi, ‘It looks awful like the stuff last night,’ hesitated Mr. McCullagh. |