The First Minister said a “soft” exit from the European Union might persuade her to shelf her separation plans temporarily.
However, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has told her to remove the threat altogether, or risk causing more uncertainty to people and businesses across the country.
On BBC radio this morning, the Ms Sturgeon stated: “I'm deliberately saying, 'put my preferred option to one side' and asking people if we can find a consensus and compromise option.”
The message was in stark contrast to her reaction the day after the Brexit vote, when she immediately instructed civil servants to start drafting plans for another independence referendum.
And only this week the SNP issued a reminder to people to respond to the Scottish Government’s official consultation on another separation drive.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said:
"Nicola Sturgeon has spent six months trying desperately to use Brexit as a way of increasing support for independence. She's failed.
"The First Minister knows that if another referendum on independence was called tomorrow, she'd lose.
“Polls show fewer and fewer Scots agree with her separation obsession, and support for the question being asked again has collapsed.
"We are being left in the worst of all possible worlds.
“Scotland is kept in limbo as Nicola Sturgeon tries to find an escape route after marching her troops to the top of a mountain, but still keeping the threat of a second referendum on the table as a possibility for the future.
"The First Minister should act in the interests of the whole country by recognising the decision Scotland made just two years ago and respecting that result.
“And, instead of continually pitting herself against the UK government, work together with the other parts of the UK to get the best Brexit deal for everyone."