Mr. Micawber is a character from the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield, who repeatedly postpones addressing problems “to allow time for something to turn up,” and his constant repetition to the point of cliché of “something will turn up.” Micawberism is usually used to describe a tactic of procrastination in hopes of some unexpected event or fact, a deus ex machina, arising which can transform a bad situation into a good one. See horse might learn to sing.