throat-clearing
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
A pause or sound before speaking to get attention
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
dừng lại hoặc phát ra tiếng trước khi nói để thu hút sự chú ý
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: clearing of the throat
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The speaker did some throat-clearing before starting
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “throat-clearing” mean?
A pause or sound before speaking to get attention Literally: clearing of the throat
Is “throat-clearing” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.