hem

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A short cough or clearing of the throat made especially to gain attention, warn another, hide embarrassment, or fill a pause in speech.
• intransitive verb To utter a hem.
• intransitive verb To hesitate in speech.
• idiom (hem and haw) To be hesitant and indecisive; equivocate.
• noun An edge or border on a piece of cloth, especially a finished edge, as for a garment or curtain, made by folding an edge under and stitching it down.
• noun The height or level of the bottom edge of a skirt, dress, or coat; a hemline.
• transitive verb To fold back and stitch down the edge of.
• transitive verb To surround and shut in; enclose: synonym: enclose.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To form a hem or border to; fold and sew down the edge of: as, to hem an apron.
• To border; edge.
• To inclose; circumscribe; limit or confine by an environment of any kind: with in, about, or around.
• An interjectional utterance, a sort of voluntary half-cough, intended to attract the attention of a particular person, to cover embarrassment by feigned indifference or hesitation, etc. Also ahem.
• See he, I., D .
• To make the sound expressed by the word hem; hence, to hesitate or stammer in speaking: as, to hem and haw.
• To remove or otherwise affect by coughing.
• noun A narrow fold in the edge of a piece of textile material, made to prevent it from raveling.
• noun Edge; border; margin.
• noun In architecture, the projecting spiral of the Ionic capital.
• See hemato-.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun An utterance or sound of the voice, hem or hm, often indicative of hesitation or doubt, sometimes used to call attention.
• noun The edge or border of a garment or cloth, doubled over and sewed, to strengthen it and prevent raveling.
• noun Border; edge; margin.
• noun A border made on sheet-metal ware by doubling over the edge of the sheet, to stiffen it and remove the sharp edge.
• pronoun obsolete Them.
• intransitive verb To make the sound expressed by the word hem; hence, to hesitate in speaking.
• transitive verb To form a hem or border to; to fold and sew down the edge of.
• transitive verb To border; to edge.
• transitive verb to inclose and confine; to surround; to environ.
• transitive verb to shut out.
• interjection An onomatopoetic word used as an expression of hesitation, doubt, etc. It is often a sort of voluntary half cough, loud or subdued, and would perhaps be better expressed by hm.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• pronoun Obsolete form of 'em.
• interjection Used to fill in the gap of a pause with a vocalized sound.
• noun sewing The border of an article of clothing doubled back and stitched together to finish the edge and prevent it from fraying.
• noun A rim or margin of something.
• noun In sheet metal design, a rim or edge folded back on itself to create a smooth edge and to increase strength or rigidity.
• verb intransitive (in sewing) To make a hem.
• verb intransitive (in speaking) To make a sound like hem (usually coupled with "haw" as in "hemmed and hawed.")
• verb transitive : To put hem on an article of clothing, to edge or put a border on something.
• verb transitive : To surround something or someone in a confining way.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb utter `hem' or `ahem'
• noun the edge of a piece of cloth; especially the finished edge that has been doubled under and stitched down
• verb fold over and sew together to provide with a hem
• noun the utterance of a sound similar to clearing the throat; intended to get attention, express hesitancy, fill a pause, hide embarrassment, warn a friend, etc.