HANGING BACK Synonyms: 42 Similar and Opposite Words

hanging back

verb

present participle of hang back

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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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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

Recent Examples of Synonyms for hanging back

Verb

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.

— Craig Morgan Teicher, Literary Hub, 1 June 2026
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.

— David Ornstein, New York Times, 29 May 2026