Today’s “Phrase of the Day” is “hemmed and hawed (or) ummed and ahhed“ and its meaning is “be unable to decide what to do (or) take a long time to decide on something; be indecisive; be hesitant, be uncertain”.
Example Sentence: Yet apart from the furlough policy, The Chancellor of the Exchequer (The UK Finance minister) Rishi Sunak is even more of a normalist (believer in normality) than his boss. He is the cabinet’s most powerful agitator against lockdowns. His “eat out to help out” scheme is the arch-normalist (chief-normalist) policy: a costly attempt to make believe that all is dandy (excellent) – just weeks before another lockdown. And he has hemmed and hawed, ummed and ahhed over continuing his furlough scheme.
This phrase is present in The Guardian article The budget is a dangerous moment for an ambitious chancellor and click here to read it.
Courtesy: The Guardian
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