Search the Dictionary

truggle against anything; to make resistance; to draw back; to feel or show repugnance or reluctance. Apt to reluct at the excesses of it [passion]. Walton.

The state or quality of being reluctant; repugnance; aversion of mind; unwillingness; -- often followed by an infinitive, or by to and a noun, formerly sometimes by against. "Tempering the severity of his looks with a reluctance to the action." Dryden. He had some reluctance to obey the summons. Sir W. Scott. Bear witn…

Striving against; opposed in desire; unwilling; disinclined; loth. Reluctant, but in vain. Milton. Reluctant now I touched the trembling string. Tickell.

In a reluctant manner.

To struggle against anything; to resist; to oppose. [Obs.] "To delude their reluctating consciences." Dr. H. More.

Repugnance; resistance; reluctance. [Obs.] Bacon.

Specific reluctance.

Having a repugnance or opposition of mind; disliking; disinclined; unwilling; reluctant. Averse alike to flatter, or offend. Pope. Men who were averse to the life of camps. Macaulay. Pass by securely as men averse from war. Micah ii. 8.

Opposition or repugnance of mind; fixed dislike; antipathy; disinclination; reluctance. Mutual aversion of races. Prescott. His rapacity had made him an object of general aversion. Macaulay.

Unwilling; averse; reluctant; hesitating; loath. For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves. Pope.

Reluctantly; slowly; aversely. [Obs.] Sir P. Sidney.

cover money due on a contract, or damages for a tort, which can not be enforced against a reluctant party without suit. -- Chose in possession, a thing in possession, as distinguished from a thing in action. -- Chose local, a thing annexed to a place, as a mill. -- Chose transitory, a thing which is movable. Cowell.…

If the act were otherwise circumstantiated, it might will that freely which now it wills reluctantly. Bramhall.

Readily; without reluctance; willingly. Not soon provoked, she easily forgives. Prior.

e, in a fit and proper manner grace fully; graciously. -- With a bad grace, in a forced, reluctant, or perfunctory manner; ungraciously. What might have been done with a good grace would at least be done with a bad grace. Macaulay.

irection of the fibers; hence, against one's wishes or tastes; unwillingly; unpleasantly; reluctantly; with difficulty. Swift.Saintsbury.-- A grain of allowance, a slight indulgence or latitude a small allowance. -- Grain binder, an attachment to a harvester for binding the grain into sheaves. -- Grain colors, dyes m…

s or to appropriate; to envy (one) the possession of; to begrudge; to covet; to give with reluctance; to desire to get back again; -- followed by the direct object only, or by both the direct and indirect objects. Tis not in thee To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train. Shak. I have often heard the Presbyterians sa…

haucer. Easier both to freight, and to hale ashore. Milton. As some dark priest hales the reluctant victim. Shelley.

on. To hang around, to loiter idly about. -- To hang back, to hesitate; to falter; to be reluctant. "If any one among you hangs back." Jowett (Thucyd.). -- To hang by the eyelids. (a) To hang by a very slight hold or tenure. (b) To be in an unfinished condition; to be left incomplete. -- To hang in doubt, to be in s…

To utter with hesitation or to intimate by a reluctant manner. [Poetic & R.] Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike. Pope.