RELUCTANCE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Reluctance

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/rɪlˈəktəns/ /rilˈəktəns/ Listen

noun

Reluctancy, Reluctance n.

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."

Synonyms: Syn. See Dislike. "He had some reluctance to obey the summons." "Bear witness, Heaven, with what reluctancy Her helpless innocence I doom to die."

(Elec.) Magnetic resistance, being equal to the ratio of magnetomotive force to magnetic flux.

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Etymology of 'Reluctance'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Reluctance" Quotes from Famous Books

... which discontent takes in this country is not of a healthy kind; for, the Natives of India consider that the only occupation worthy of an educated man is that of a writership in some office, and especially in a Government office. The village schoolboy goes back to the plow with the greatest reluctance; and the town schoolboy carries the same discontent and inefficiency into his father's workshop. Sometimes these ex-students positively refuse at first to work; and more than once parents have openly expressed their regret that they ever allowed their sons to be ...

— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... visit, but I think she always knew I would never leave her. Sometime, she said, she should like me to go, but not until she was laid away. 'And how small I have grown this last winter. Look at my wrists. It canna be long now.' No, I never thought of going, was never absent for a day from her without reluctance, and never walked so quickly as when I was going back. In the meantime that happened which put an end for ever to my scheme of travel. I shall never go up the Road of Loving Hearts now, on 'a wonderful clear ...

— Margaret Ogilvy • James M. Barrie

... mistaking of the marks of reluctance and procrastination for impetuous, horror-striking, fiendishness!—Of such importance is it to understand the germ of a character. But the interval taken by Hamlet's speech is truly awful! ...

— Literary Remains, Vol. 2 • Coleridge

... and freight-carrying vessels, the Government of the United States can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the German Empire altogether. This action the Government of the United States contemplates with the greatest reluctance, but feels constrained to take in behalf of humanity and the rights ...

— My Three Years in America • Johann Heinrich Andreas Hermann Albrecht Graf von Bernstorff

... time was anything hinted in reference to the original reluctance to have the Terrans visit the Nucleus. All possible courtesy was shown them now, and Cameron dared not mention the invitations to stay home. He felt the situation was as penetrable as a thick wall of sponge rubber backed by a ten-foot foundation ...

— Cubs of the Wolf • Raymond F. Jones

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