sit on the fence
Formssits on the fence, sitting on the fence, sat on the fence
- 1To stay neutral on an issue, refusing to take a side or commit to an opinion.
Like a referee who refuses to call the play one way or the other.
The senator chose to sit on the fence rather than back either proposal.
Voters grew frustrated with a candidate who kept sitting on the fence on every major issue.
Similarequivocate, hedge, waver, vacillate, dither
Note
The phrase is seldom neutral about neutrality: it usually works as a reproach to someone who won't commit. A squire growls it at a curate who refuses to label himself, and Joseph Robinson's The First Book of Kings (1972) gives it to Elijah: "How long will you sit on the fence?" The issue follows with about, as when Tom Watson in 2019 warned against sitting on the fence about the most crucial issue facing the country.
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