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What is "reluctance"

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reluctance
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
reluctance
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
sense sb’s fear/excitement/reluctance etc
▪ Luke paused and she sensed his reluctance to continue.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
certain
▪ In fact, you will probably need to overcome a certain reluctance to be recorded, whatever your location.
▪ With a certain reluctance she agreed to have a further examination, and tests were taken from the cervix and urethra.
▪ It is so enchanting that there is always a certain reluctance to reveal its magic to the rest of the world.
great
▪ With the greatest of reluctance, I decided that it was time I bought myself another detector.
▪ Davis found that the greater the probable handicap, the greater the reluctance to break the news.
▪ There is still a great reluctance by many manufacturers in entering the export field.
▪ There was moreover a great reluctance to intervene in the family itself.
▪ He came down from Cambridge in 1888, and without either great enthusiasm or great reluctance went into the family business.
▪ Local government was allocated these responsibilities with great reluctance only after the government had explored every other possibility.
▪ In practice this power has been rarely used, and only with the greatest reluctance.
▪ Chairwoman Helena Shovelton said the commission made its decision with great reluctance.
initial
▪ Other resistances or blocks to communication can be more than an initial reluctance to talk about the main issues.
▪ Despite this initial reluctance, the plan was approved as a pilot project.
▪ His initial reluctance stemmed partly from a statement he had made in November 1991 vowing never to accept the post.
▪ And, with some initial reluctance the two men shook hands.
▪ An initial reluctance on the part of Galileo to publicize the Copernican system should not automatically be ascribed to fear of clerical censure.
marked
▪ There is also an apparent marked reluctance on the part of Ministers to agree Moorland Orders.
obvious
▪ She returned to St-Cloud with obvious reluctance.
▪ His youthful 41 years accepted my aged 48 with obvious reluctance.
▪ After much discussion and with obvious reluctance, the court was adjourned for a week.
■ VERB
accept
▪ Twilight and mystery were woven into the words - along with fear and a reluctance to accept the inevitable.
explain
▪ The close association between the visual and the cultural may explain the reluctance of some teachers to give it much attention.
▪ Sluggish gold and energy prices for most of 1995 helped explain investors' reluctance to venture into hard assets.
▪ This may explain its reluctance to come out of four wheel drive.
▪ Might such considerations explain Mrs Thatcher's reluctance to join the system, at least before the next election?
▪ This might explain Shell's reluctance to commercialise or even patent the reaction.
▪ Ministers would be angry, too - which might explain any reluctance on Mr MacGregor's part to push for morning sittings.
give
▪ I talked to other close friends and, usually with reluctance, they gave me the same advice as my agent.
▪ Lecture after lecture, accompanied by complaints about the futility of lectures and his reluctance to give them.
▪ The first is the historical reluctance of empires to give up their colonies.
overcome
▪ In fact, you will probably need to overcome a certain reluctance to be recorded, whatever your location.
▪ The failure of 1874 helped to overcome radical reluctance to form centralized organizations.
▪ He says that clients must overcome their reluctance and come foreward.
▪ Whereas pity has to overcome a reluctance to be drawn into subjective awareness of another's suffering, cruelty welcomes it.
show
▪ However, the hon. Gentleman has never shown any reluctance to enter my car.
▪ And the others? ... Well, yes - a few show some reluctance at the calling-back Need some - further treatment.
▪ The disciples show a reluctance to fully engage with the question-maybe the answer is to disturbing.
▪ A party that has shown reluctance to cut itself free of the past will need to act boldly to salvage the situation.
▪ Gedge showed an extraordinary reluctance to loosen his grip on Rigby.
take
▪ This reluctance to take office is recalled during the annual mayor-making in the council chamber of the town hall.
▪ I saw that her reluctance to be taken had been feigned, or part-feigned.
▪ One reason for this reluctance to take action against the process of monopolization is the difficulty of distinguishing acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.
▪ With some reluctance Mrs Abigail took the box from him.
▪ Hendry also possesses a greater range than Davis, who may be hamstrung by his reluctance to take on long pots.
use
▪ The reluctance of translators to use it is understandable to some extent.
▪ Why the reluctance to use formal leave?
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And, with some initial reluctance the two men shook hands.
▪ Despite this initial reluctance, the plan was approved as a pilot project.
▪ He handed it to Terry with a show of false reluctance, preceding it with a string of apologies.
▪ Other resistances or blocks to communication can be more than an initial reluctance to talk about the main issues.
▪ There are various explanations for his reluctance to do so.
▪ With reluctance Theodora turned to go.
▪ With the greatest of reluctance, I decided that it was time I bought myself another detector.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Reluctance

Reluctance \Re*luc"tance\ (r?-l?k"tans), Reluctancy \Re*luc"tan*cy\ (-tan-s?), n. [See Reluctant.]

  1. 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.''
    --Dryden.

    Syn: Syn. See Dislike.

    He had some reluctance to obey the summons.
    --Sir W. Scott.

    Bear witness, Heaven, with what reluctancy Her helpless innocence I doom to die.
    --Dryden.

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

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
reluctance

1640s, "act of struggling against," from obsolete verb reluct "to struggle or rebel against" (1520s), from Latin reluctari "to struggle against, resist, make opposition," from re- "against" (see re-) + luctari "to struggle, wrestle," perhaps shares a common origin with Greek lygos "pliant twig," lygizein "to bend, twist," Old English locc "twist of hair" (see lock (n.2)). Meaning "unwillingness" is first attested 1660s. Related: Reluctancy (1620s.).

Wiktionary
reluctance

n. 1 unwillingness to do something. 2 hesitancy in taking some action. 3 (context physics English) That property of a magnetic circuit analogous to resistance in an electric circuit.

Related phrases:
WordNet
reluctance

  1. n. (physics) opposition to magnetic flux (analogous to electric resistance)

  2. a certain degree of unwillingness; "a reluctance to commit himself"; "after some hesitation he agreed" [syn: hesitancy, hesitation, disinclination, indisposition]

Wikipedia
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "reluctance".

When Inanna insisted she have another, it was easy to show ambivalence, both attraction and reluctance at the same time.

He was bewildered, for instance, by her new and to him quite inexplicable reluctance to respond to their familiar urinary tune by singing the antistrophe that signified assent, and crouching to relieve herself.

Braden as her unique scent, but she allowed herself to be herded upstairs by her cousin, the scuffing of her shoes betraying her reluctance.

Ibryen gave a curt nod and, with a hint of reluctance at being taken from this impromptu vigil, Marris led the Traveller into the Council Hall.

His reluctance to look ignorant overweighed his slight worry that the others might actually have overlooked that matter.

Trouble looked at van Liesvelt, recognizing her own reluctance and impatient with it, but unable quite to control it.

Master and Miss Percevals, the reversionary sum of 21,000 pounds a year of the public money, and having just failed in a desperate and rapacious attempt to secure to himself for life the revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster: and the best of it is, that this minister, after abusing his predecessors for their impious bounty to the Catholics, has found himself compelled, from the apprehension of immediate danger, to grant the sum in question, thus dissolving his pearl in vinegar, and destroying all the value of the gift by the virulence and reluctance with which it was granted.

After a time, Simson, with a certain caution and bodily reluctance, as it seemed to me, went out with his roll of taper into this space.

If they were sometimes tempted by a sally of passion, or by the hopes of concealment, to indulge their favorite superstition, their humble repentance disarmed the severity of the Christian magistrate, and they seldom refused to atone for their rashness, by submitting, with some secret reluctance, to the yoke of the Gospel.

Kutuzov was silent for a few seconds and then, submitting with evident reluctance to the duty imposed by his position, raised his head and began to speak.

Imperial edicts were subscribed with alacrity or reluctance by the four patriarchs of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch.

Marillier dwelt on this thought, in spite of his reluctance to look at the fetich and ascertain for himself how much of life and power remained in it, a sense of superphysical elation filled him.

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.

O poisoner of children, surely it would be better to cut the knot of reluctance and uncord the casket of explanation.

Eventually, with simulated reluctance, he opened the holdall, quickly wound the unexposed film to an end and emptied the camera.