haw
v.v. to pause or hesitate while speaking because you are not sure what to say. It is almost always used in the phrase 'hem and haw'.
v. to hesitate or make indecisive sounds during speech. Typically occurs in the fixed binomial 'hem and haw' to indicate stalling or an inability to reach a decision.
Stop trying to haw and just tell me the truth.
The manager began to hem and haw when asked directly about the upcoming layoffs.
Rather than providing a definitive answer to the committee, the witness continued to hem and haw, effectively stalling the investigation for another hour.
From Middle English ha (interjection). Compare Old Norse há (interjection), Middle Low German ha, hā (interjection), Old High German aha, hei (interjection).
From Middle English hawe, from Old English haga (“enclosure, hedge”), from Proto-Germanic hagô (compare West Frisian haach, Dutch haag, German Hag (“hedged farmland”), Norwegian Bokmål hage (“garden”)), from Proto-Indo-European kagʰom (compare Welsh cae (“field”), Latin caulae (“sheepfold, enclosure”), cohum (“strap between plowbeam and yoke”), Russian кош (koš, “tent”), коша́ра (košára, “sheepfold”), Sanskrit कक्ष (kakṣa, “curtain wall”)), from *kagʰ- 'to catch, grasp' (compare Welsh cau (“to clasp”), Oscan kahad (“may he seize”).
Assumed to be interjectory, but compare Old English hawian (“to observe, look”)
Late Middle English (denoting a discharge from the eye), of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Etymology 2 above, describing a berry.
Almost exclusively used alongside 'hem' as part of the phrasal idiom 'hem and haw'.
he began to haw and hemhe began to hem and hawThe idiom is a fixed binomial; the order of the words cannot be reversed.