press pause

English

Etymology

By analogy with the "pause" button on a media player.

Verb

press pause (third-person singular simple present presses pause, present participle pressing pause, simple past and past participle pressed pause)

1. (intransitive, informal) To temporarily stop a process.
   • 2023 November 15, Tessa Wong, “Xi Jinping arrives in US as his Chinese Dream sputters”, in BBC‎:

     Chinese state media has pressed pause on the US-bashing, releasing a raft of commentaries extolling the merits of resetting relations and working on co-operation.