To pace about restlessly and hang around impatiently while waiting for someone to complete a task for you, often accompanied by repeatedly looking over the person's shoulder. Erroneously thought of by the waiter as helping to speed things up, hovering generally has the exact opposite effect, causing the
laborer to feel
harried and nervous at being constantly watched, and thus actually making him take even longer to complete the task because his uneasiness obliges him to work more carefully and deliberately, and to re-check more details of his work than he would if he was calm.
Can also loosely refer to any form of fretting at or
badgering someone, such as by
phoning or e-mailing/IM-ing him repeatedly.
Example:
Husband: Is
the shop almost done fixing our car yet?
Wife: Well, possibly, but I am not sure... they were still
working on it when I stepped in, but they all appeared to be a bit stressed, so I didn't want to hover.