Idiom idiom
hum and haw
Meaning
To procrastinate; to take a long time before doing something or taking a decision.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Stop humming and hawing and just make a choice.”
“The committee spent hours humming and hawing over the budget instead of approving the project.”
“Despite the urgency of the situation, the board continued to hum and haw, effectively stalling any meaningful progress until the deadline had passed.”
Anchors to
Last updated August 10, 2026