give pause to, to
give (one) pause
To cause one to take a moment to consider something; to cause one to hesitate. I'd love to buy a house, but the fact that I'd have to completely deplete my savings account to do it gives me pause. That statistic should give everyone pause.
give pause to (one)
To cause one to take a moment to consider something. I'd love to buy a house, but the fact that I'd have to completely deplete my savings account to do it gives pause to me.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
give pause to, to
To stop temporarily; to hesitate; to hold back in order to reflect. This term, too, comes from Shakespeare, from Hamlet’s famous soliloquy on death (3.1), “For in that sleep of death what dreams may come . . . must give us pause.” Eric Partridge said it has been a cliché since the mid-nineteenth century.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer