Dictionary Definition
reluctant adj
1 unwillingness to do something contrary to your
custom; "a reluctant smile"; "loath to admit a mistake"; "unwilling
to face facts" [syn: loath, loth]
2 unwilling to become involved; "they were
usually reluctant to socialize"; "reluctant to help"
3 not eager; "foreigners stubbornly uneager to
accept our ways"; "fresh from college and uneager for the moment to
marry him"; "reluctant to help"
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- /ɹɪˈlʌktənt/, /r\I"lVkt@nt/
Adjective
Translations
- Chinese: 不情愿 (bù qíngyuàn)
- Dutch: aarzelend
- Finnish: haluton, vastahakoinen
- French: hésitant
- German: zögernd
- Interlingua: reluctante
- Italian: riluttante
- Polish: niechętny
- Romanian: reticent, precaut
- Russian: неохотный
- Scots: sweirt, laith
- Spanish: reticente
- Swedish: motvillig
Related terms
- reluctance, noun
- reluctantly, adverb
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
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, withstanding