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reluctantly

UK/ɹɪˈlʌktəntli/US/ɹɪˈlʌktəntli/
adverbC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,789 of 15,258leans written

Reluctantly means unwillingly, dragging your feet. Doing it, and making sure everybody can tell you would rather not.

The word marks the gap between the action and the wish, which is why it usually attaches to verbs of agreement: reluctantly agreed, reluctantly accepted, reluctantly concluded. It is a favourite of formal reporting, where reluctantly signals that a decision was forced. The adjective reluctant takes to and a verb. Willingly and readily are its opposites, and eagerly is further along the same line.

Definitions of reluctantly

  1. 1adverbreluctantlyUnwillingly and without enthusiasm.C1

    “He reluctantly agreed to give evidence.”

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *lewg-

  2. Latin

    reluctāns

  3. English

    reluctant

  4. English, today

    reluctantly

Built from

  • reluctor · Latin — to struggle against, oppose, resist
  • re- · Latin — back
  • luctor · Latin — to struggle

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Adjectives, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 3 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

reluctantly in the wild

  • Calypso finally, though reluctantly, instructed Odysseus to build a small raft, gave him food and wine, and let him depart the island.

    Ogygia

  • Then LLWS chairman Peter McGovern reluctantly agreed to a blanket ban of all international teams.

    1975 Little League World Series

  • The island's Anglo-Scottish landlord had expected the crofters evicted from Uig to emigrate and only reluctantly granted them land at Swainbost to avert the threat of violence.

    Swainbost

  • Fania gave Lavoe the go-ahead reluctantly, on what would be his first and only self-produced album.

    Que Sentimiento!

  • The series stars Elba as a disc jockey who reluctantly becomes the nanny for his famous friend's daughter; Piper Perabo, JJ Feild and Frankie Hervey also star.

    Turn Up Charlie

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the luctor family

reluctantreluctancereluctantly

reluctantly — used about once every 5,163 pages · #9,789 · point at the bar for the others