as in hesitating
to show uncertainty about the right course of action
she hung back in offering her opinion about her daughter's career choices because it wasn't her business
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Recent Examples of hanging back
Dad is hanging back in the doorway.
—
Literary Hub, 24 Nov. 2025
After Fester fried the hospital's power grid, allowing the LOIS patients to escape and begin attacking Judi, Wednesday noticed that one female patient was hanging back.
—Megan McCluskey, Time, 6 Aug. 2025
Literary Hub, 24 Nov. 2025
After Fester fried the hospital's power grid, allowing the LOIS patients to escape and begin attacking Judi, Wednesday noticed that one female patient was hanging back.
—Megan McCluskey, Time, 6 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hanging back
Verb
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Right now, Taylor said, both sides are hesitating.—
Rachel Barber,
USA Today,
8 May 2026
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Walgreens isn’t hesitating to close stores in parts of Chicago where theft is frequent and there are legitimate concerns about the safety of employees and customers.—
The Editorial Board,
Chicago Tribune,
6 May 2026
Verb
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Tangent The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board specifically calls out declining pandemic preparedness funding as a result of faltering political attention.—
Mary Whitfill Roeloffs,
Forbes.com,
18 May 2026
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With most tropical reefs expected to face conditions like the Gulf’s by 2100—and already faltering under increasingly frequent marine heat waves—that makes the Gulf’s coral a source of valuable genetic information about resilience that could have implications for the rest of the world’s reefs.—
Meghan Bartels,
Scientific American,
14 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Hanging back.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hanging%20back. Accessed 22 May. 2026.
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