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Reluctant
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Adjective Reluctant has 3 senses
- reluctant(s = adj.all) loath, loth - unwillingness to do something contrary to your custom; "a reluctant smile"; "loath to admit a mistake" Derived form noun reluctance2
- reluctant(s = adj.all) Array - disinclined to become involved; "they were usually reluctant to socialize"; "reluctant to help" Derived form noun reluctance2
- reluctant(s = adj.all) Array - not eager; "foreigners stubbornly reluctant to accept our ways"; "fresh from college and reluctant for the moment to marry him" Derived form noun reluctance2
CIDE DICTIONARY
Reluctant, a. [L. reluctans, -antis, p. pr. of reluctari. See Reluct.].
- Striving against; opposed in desire; unwilling; disinclined; loth. [1913 Webster]"Reluctant, but in vain." [1913 Webster]"Reluctant now I touched the trembling string." [1913 Webster]
- Proceeding from an unwilling mind; granted with reluctance; as, reluctant obedience. Mitford. [1913 Webster]
Syn. -- Averse; unwilling; loth; disinclined; repugnant; backward; coy. See Averse.
OXFORD DICTIONARY
Reluctant, adj. (often foll. by to + infin.) unwilling or disinclined (most reluctant to agree).
Derivative
reluctance n. reluctantly adv.
Etymology
L reluctari (as RE-, luctari struggle)
THESAURUS
Reluctant
afraid, ambling, antagonistic, apathetic, averse, backward, balking, balky, calculating, careful, cautious, chary, circumspect, claudicant, complaining, crawling, creeping, creeping like snail, deliberate, dilatory, disinclined, disputatious, disputing, dissentient, dissenting, easy, faltering, flagging, foot-dragging, fractious, gentle, gradual, grudging, halting, hesitant, hobbled, hobbling, idle, indifferent, indisposed, indolent, laggard, languid, languorous, lazy, leery, leisurely, limping, loath, lumbering, moderate, noncooperative, objecting, obstructive, on the barricades, opposed, perfunctory, poking, poky, proof against, protesting, rebellious, recalcitrant, refractory, relaxed, renitent, repellent, resistant, resisting, resistive, restive, retardant, retardative, sauntering, shuffling, shy, slack, slothful, slow, slow as death, slow as molasses, slow as slow, slow to, slow-crawling, slow-foot, slow-going, slow-legged, slow-moving, slow-paced, slow-poky, slow-running, slow-sailing, slow-stepped, sluggish, snail-paced, snaillike, staggering, strolling, tentative, toddling, tortoiselike, tottering, trudging, turtlelike, uncooperative, uneager, unenthusiastic, unhurried, unsubmissive, unwilling, unyielding, unzealous, up in arms, waddling, wary, withstandingROGET THESAURUS
Reluctant
Unwillingness
N unwillingness, indisposition, indisposedness, disinclination, aversation, nolleity, nolition, renitence, renitency, reluctance, indifference, backwardness, slowness, want of alacrity, want of readiness, indocility, scrupulousness, scrupulosity, qualms of conscience, twinge of conscience, delicacy, demur, scruple, qualm, shrinking, recoil, hesitation, fastidiousness, averseness, dissent, refusal, unwilling, not in the vein, loth, loath, shy of, disinclined, indisposed, averse, reluctant, not content, adverse, laggard, backward, remiss, slack, slow to, indifferent, scrupulous, squeamish, repugnant, restiff, restive, demurring, unconsenting, involuntary, unwillingly, grudgingly, with a heavy heart, with a bad, with an ill grace, against one's wishes, against one's will, against the grain, sore against one's wishes, sore against one's will, sore against one's grain, invita Minerva, a contre caeur, malgre soi, in spite of one's teeth, in spite of oneself, nolens volens, perforce, under protest, no, not for the world, far be it from me.
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