INVOLUNTARY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Involuntary

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/ɪnvˈɑləntˌɛri/ Listen

adjective

Involuntary adj.

Not having will or the power of choice.

Not under the influence or control of the will; not voluntary; as, the involuntary movements of the body; involuntary muscle fibers.

Not proceeding from choice; done unwillingly; reluctant; compulsory; as, involuntary submission.

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Etymology of 'Involuntary'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Involuntary" Quotes from Famous Books

... York; and whether he would think it too much of a liberty, if I asked him, if he had any good books in his chest. He stared a little at first, but marking what good language I used, seeing my civil bearing toward him, he seemed for a moment to be filled with a certain involuntary respect for me, and answered, that he had been to church once, some ten or twelve years before, in London, and on a week-day had helped to move the Floating Chapel round the Battery, from the North River; and that was the only time he had seen it. For his books, he said he did not ...

— Redburn. His First Voyage • Herman Melville

... drops of sweat broke out on his forehead. Suddenly he had remembered the roll of papers sticking out of Bobinette's muff. He uttered a cry: "My God! But supposing!"... He did not put the rest of his thought into words. For an instant he had the idea that through thoughtlessness, by mistake, an involuntary one assuredly, his mistress had taken this document to wrap up her letters ... without suspecting. That was it! No doubt she had carried off with her this secret plan of mobilisation—but if the plan got lost? If it were dropped ...

— A Nest of Spies • Pierre Souvestre

... entreaties or tears would move them in the slightest, but that courage and firmness would at any rate command their respect and admiration. She had therefore schooled herself to show no emotion when the time came; and now, except that she had given an involuntary shudder at the sight of the gesticulating throng, she betrayed no sign whatever of her emotion, but looked round so calmly and unflinchingly that the violent abuse and gesticulations died away in a murmur of admiration of the pale-faced ...

— On the Pampas • G. A. Henty

... one of the two masks he had taken from the chest, and smiled with derision as he saw the gesture of involuntary fear which the slight shock of the black ...

— The Hated Son • Honore de Balzac

... himself to the real characters of the people in question, when once he had discovered them. His villains became curious studies in human nature; he turned them over in his mind, and he caused Deuceace, Barry Lyndon, and Ikey Solomons, Esq., to pay back some of their ill-gotten spoils, in an involuntary but very legitimate fashion, when he put them into print and made them the heroes of those grim ...

— Studies in Literature and History • Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall

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