hang fire

The surprise made the others I had been dining seem statues from the stone age, and only Mr. Graves' fork failed to hang fire.

My B. says she is constantly trying to incite me to literary effort, but I hang fire.

His plots hang fire, are difficult to follow, and are not worth remembering.

Now, I'll not have thee in our gang, for thou art not up to the fun, and thou'd hang fire when the time came to be doing.

The perception of this excess made Charlotte, whether for gravity or for irony, hang fire a minute.