give (someone) pause

: to make a present of

: to grant or bestow by formal action

: to accord or yield to another

: capacity or tendency to yield to force or strain : flexibility

: the ability of a material to bend or stretch

: some person : somebody

: a temporary stop

: a break in a verse

: a brief suspension of the voice to indicate the limits and relations of sentences and their parts

: to stop temporarily

: to linger for a time

: to cause to pause : stop