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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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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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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The book does often feel like a recording of a mental jam session, but there is also a sense of being guided by a kind of hesitating yet urgent voice that needs to get things figured out.
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While their rivals started spending significant sums of money as soon as the 2024-25 season finished, Spurs wasted a couple of weeks hesitating about the long-term future of then head coach Ange Postecoglou before replacing him with Thomas Frank.
Verb
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Chris Jung | Nurphoto | Getty Images Shares of Nvidia have been faltering recently — and Kalshi traders predict that what the company can charge for chips is also declining.
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After faltering in last year’s Div.
Cite this Entry
“Hanging back.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hanging%20back. Accessed 26 Jun. 2026.
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