Crossword Genius

Paused hospital diets and ate nuts (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

hesitated

'paused' is the definition.
('hesitate' can be a synonym of 'pause')

'hospital diets and ate nuts' is the wordplay.
'hospital' becomes 'H' (abbreviation for hospital on maps).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'nuts' indicates anagramming the letters (nuts can mean crazy).
'diets' after 'ate' is 'atediets'.
'atediets' anagrammed gives 'esitated'.
'h'+'esitated'='HESITATED'

(Other definitions for hesitated that I've seen before include "Was not keen" , "Paused, wavered" , "Thought twice" , "held back" , "was indecisive" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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