give pause to someone

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.
See also: give, pause
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

give pause to someone (or give someone pause (for thought)

cause someone to think carefully or hesitate before doing something.
See also: give, pause, someone
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • give (one) pause for thought
  • give pause for thought
  • give pause to (one)
  • pause
  • give pause
  • give (one) pause
  • (one's) other half
  • your other half
  • if I had (some monetary unit) for every (something), I'd be rich!
  • I'd as leave do
References in periodicals archive
My university's bibliometrics specialist recently told me that the most common number of citations received by scholarly articles is zero, which ought to give pause to someone thinking of republishing anything.
Humanism in the Low Countries
Marked might not stand out on a comic book rack, but it would certainly give pause to someone browsing in a religious book store where it is just as likely to be found.
A graphic look at Scripture