give (someone) pause

idiom

: to cause (someone) to stop and think about something carefully or to have doubts about something

I was going to ask her for help, but the look on her face gave me pause.

Examples of give (someone) pause in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

While some fear the worst is yet to come, and that larger e-motorcycle manufacturers are set for a similar fate, these shutdowns also give pause to other early adopters looking to ride the electric wave. —New Atlas, 24 Oct. 2024

Being consistent with that duality has allowed people to give pause. —Cerys Davies, Los Angeles Times, 14 Aug. 2024

But does an 8-1 Game 4 spanking in Edmonton give pause to the would-bet celebrants in South Florida? —Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 16 June 2024

Moon mining, whether for water or rare-earth metals, remains science fiction today, and tends to give pause to casual observers, who imagine looking up, horrified, at a strip-mined lunar surface. —David W. Brown, The New Yorker, 4 Mar. 2024