Link Centre Dictionary

reluctant

re·luc·tant

UK/ɹɪˈlʌktənt/ US/riˈlʌktʌnt/ fairly common

adjective

1.

unwillingness to do something contrary to your custom

  • “a reluctant smile”
  • “loath to admit a mistake”
  • “unwilling to face facts”
Synonyms
Similar
2.

unwilling to become involved

  • “they were usually reluctant to socialize”
  • “reluctant to help”
Similar
3.

not eager

  • “foreigners stubbornly uneager to accept our ways”
  • “fresh from college and uneager for the moment to marry him”
  • “reluctant to help”
Similar

Origin

Learned borrowing from Latin reluctāns (whence -ant), present participle of reluctor (“to struggle against, oppose, resist”), from re- (“back”) + luctor (“to struggle”) (whence re-.

Phrases

  • reluctant dragon

Related words

Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.