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Crossword clues for hesitant

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
hesitant
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
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▪ I have never heard a more hesitant and pathetic approach to the problem.
▪ If we were asked, now, to define civilization in the singular, we should certainly be more hesitant.
▪ It may be more hesitant than the House of Representatives about extending the death penalty, for instance for drug-dealing.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ He answered in his usual shy, hesitant manner.
▪ He was a little hesitant at first, but soon he had told her everything.
▪ I was hesitant about approaching the boss directly.
▪ It is not surprising that the government was hesitant to introduce such major reforms.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A hesitant hand to her mouth, a rather bemused smile in her eyes, she watched him walk away.
▪ In a changing job market, employees are hesitant.
▪ Most were reluctant, defensive, or simply hesitant to blow their own trumpet.
▪ There are lots of ceramics books, postcards and other visual stimuli around the shop, too, to help the hesitant.
▪ They seemed anxious and hesitant about leaving, as if uncertain of which direction to take.
▪ Yet, some large publishers are still hesitant about committing any money to a black magazine project.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hesitant

Hesitant \Hes"i*tant\, a. [L. haesitans, p. pr. of haesitare: cf. F. h['e]sitant. See Hesitate.]

  1. Not prompt in deciding or acting; hesitating.

  2. Unready in speech.
    --Baxter.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
hesitant

1640s, probably a back-formation from hesitancy, or else from Latin haesitantem. Related: Hesitantly.

Wiktionary
hesitant

a. Tending to hesitate, wait, or proceed with caution or reservation.

WordNet
hesitant
  1. adj. lacking decisiveness of character; unable to act or decide quickly or firmly; "stood irresolute waiting for some inspiration" [syn: hesitating, irresolute]

  2. acting with uncertainty or hesitance or lack of confidence; "a groping effort to understand" [syn: groping]

Usage examples of "hesitant".

I was hesitant to beg the Venediger for help, so I had to do something myself to get the aquamanile back, and since everyone kept telling me I was a Guardian, I figured I might as well start acting like one.

He had been meaning to call Conant all morning, but was very hesitant.

Finally, after one last, hesitant glance at the living statue before him, he slid the decarbonization lever into place.

It was muggy and the first hesitant drops of rain were scattering on the sidewalk like little black stars.

We are naturally hesitant to press the French too strongly or to become deeply involved so long as we are not in a position to suggest a solution or until we are prepared to accept the onus of intervention.

With the surrounding sea empty of anything save some floating corpses and several high, triangular fins of piscine morticians come to clean up the carnage, Abdullahloath to be in proximity to the Isle of Sao Tome after sunset, if he could help itwas on the verge of ordering the boats to set to work towing the ship, when, with a first, hesitant flutter, the errant breeze once more blew.

Sweeping off his toque, he halted beside her mount, seeming as hesitant as a young had with his first love.

He was hesitant about voicing it even though everything he had seen since he had arrived had shown him that Andawyr encouraged inquiry.

Jim Peart took a few hesitant steps into the ready room and stopped just inside the door.

Faint phosphene speckles swam through the eddies and peaks, weaving in and out of the thicker ammonia-laden braids, their light ebbing and kindling in hesitant patterns.

One was a short boy with a hesitant, slinking look and a furtive smile.

Dowdy believed that his initial reluctance to run the gauntlet in Nasiriyah after Task Force Tarawa stumbled into the unanticipated battle there had set a tone and that he was unfairly depicted as too hesitant by Kelly regarding an operation in Kut that Mattis himself had never planned.

We spoke in Afrikaans and in the usual tones, mine kindly but authori tative, his hesitant and unsure whether he was to expect demand, rebuke or a request he would be reluctant to stir for.

Jennet says she is oddly hesitant to speak of it, but that she came to Appleton Manor to visit without a qualm the last time her father wanted to measure the chapel.

I understand it, the French officers who oversee the construction are strongly Bonapartist, in others hesitant or downright for the King.