reluctant

CEFRC1

/ɹɪˈlʌktənt/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Unwilling or hesitant to do something.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Contrary; defiant; refractory.

Examples

  • Some soldiers were reluctant to obey the commands.

  • Too long a holiday makes one reluctant to start work again.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
3

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Tending to match as little text as possible.

  2. Not wanting to take some action; unwilling to do something.

More examples

In context

  • He finally gave a reluctant smile.

  • Surprisingly, our new dog is a reluctant ball-retriever.

  • She was reluctant to lend him the money

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The blank student finally agreed to join the study group after much persuasion.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

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