Reader's Digest Dec/Jan号の記事からの引用です。
A woman is in an exclusive pet store looking to buy a sweater for her dog. After witnessing much hemming and hawing and the scrutinizing of the size of each item, the salesperson finally pipes in. "Why don't you bring the dog in for a fitting?" he says.
"I can't do that," the customer says. "The sweater is a surprise."
ペットの犬にサプライズプレゼントなんて笑えますね。
ところで "hemming and hawing" の意味が分からないので辞書を見ます。辞書には "hem and haw" の項で説明がありました。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Hesitate; be indecisive.: I waste a lot of time hemming and hawing before going into action.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to be uncertain and take a long time deciding something: We hemmed and hawed for months before actually deciding to buy the house.
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs :to be uncertain about something; to be evasive; to say "ah" and "eh" when speaking—avoiding saying something meaningful. Stop hemming and hawing around. I want an answer.
A woman is in an exclusive pet store looking to buy a sweater for her dog. After witnessing much hemming and hawing and the scrutinizing of the size of each item, the salesperson finally pipes in. "Why don't you bring the dog in for a fitting?" he says.
"I can't do that," the customer says. "The sweater is a surprise."
ペットの犬にサプライズプレゼントなんて笑えますね。
ところで "hemming and hawing" の意味が分からないので辞書を見ます。辞書には "hem and haw" の項で説明がありました。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Hesitate; be indecisive.: I waste a lot of time hemming and hawing before going into action.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to be uncertain and take a long time deciding something: We hemmed and hawed for months before actually deciding to buy the house.
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs :to be uncertain about something; to be evasive; to say "ah" and "eh" when speaking—avoiding saying something meaningful. Stop hemming and hawing around. I want an answer.
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