hang fire
hang fire
1. To wait to take action. I know you want to start on that project, but hang fire until I get these questions answered by the boss.
2. To await further action. How many projects do you have hanging fire right now?
See also: fire, hang
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
hang fire
to delay or wait; to be delayed. I think we should hang fire and wait for other information. Our plans have to hang fire until we get planning permission.
See also: fire, hang
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
hang fire
Delay, as in The advertising campaign is hanging fire until they decide how much to spend on it. This expression originally referred to the 17th-century flintlock musket, where the priming powder ignited but often failed to explode the main charge, a result called hanging fire. [c. 1800]
See also: fire, hang
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
hang fire
1. If you hang fire, you wait and do not do anything for a while. Banks and building societies are hanging fire on interest rates to see how the French vote in their referendum.
2. If something hangs fire, nothing is done about it for a while. He spent the next 18 months worrying about the numerous important programmes that were hanging fire in his absence. Note: This expression dates from the time when firearms used gunpowder rather than bullets. If a gun hung fire, it did not fire properly because the gunpowder had not caught light. `Flash in the pan' has a similar origin.
See also: fire, hang
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
hang fire
delay or be delayed in taking action or progressing.In the late 18th century, hang fire was used to refer to the action of a firearm that was slow in communicating the fire through the vent to the charge and so did not go off immediately.
See also: fire, hang
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
hang ˈfire
delay or be delayed: We’ll have to hang fire on that decision, I’m afraid.This phrase refers to a gun which does not fire immediately.See also: fire, hang
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
hanging fire
Delayed; undecided. This term comes from the seventeenth-century flintlock musket. Frequently an attempt to fire it would end with a flash in the lockpan, a depression that held the priming powder, which would fail to explode the main charge. Thus the gun was left hanging fire, that is, slow to fire a charge. See also flash in the pan.
See also: fire, hanging
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- hanging fire
- hold off doing
- hold off from (doing something)
- boss man
- too many cooks spoil the broth
- too many cooks spoil the soup
- too many cooks spoil the stew
- boss lady
- an itchy palm
- itchy