noun
definition
Unwillingness to do something.
definition
Hesitancy in taking some action.
definition
That property of a magnetic circuit analogous to resistance in an electric circuit.
Examples of reluctance in a Sentence
With some reluctance, mostly from Martha this time, we agreed.
He tossed in a hint of reluctance, just for good measure.
There was evidence of her reluctance to discuss some element of the accident.
Burgess spoke in a low tone but showed no reluctance to talk.
We need to overcome this reluctance to talk openly.
Brady followed with reluctance, intrigued to meet the woman whose voice had kept him company for several long weeks.
No, your morals have nothing to do with my reluctance to introduce him.
She skipped back to the jeep, her earlier reluctance nowhere in evidence.
Napoleon undoubtedly entered on the struggle with reluctance.
Cynthia Byrne held out her hand and said, with what Dean hoped was at least a hint of reluctance, I guess I won't be seeing you again.
Very little new capital was invested by the telegraph companies about 1865 because of the natural reluctance of the companies to extend the systems under their control so long as a proposal for their acquisition by the state was under consideration.
Notwithstanding this prospective loss of revenue, parliament showed great reluctance to vote any new impost, although hardly a year previously it had sanctioned (3oth June 1879) Depretiss scheme for spending during the next eighteen years 43,200,000 in building 5000 kilometres of railway, an expenditure not wholly justified by the importance of the lines, and useful principally as a source of electoral sops for the constituents of ministerial deputies.
Prince Max von Baden had introduced a general amnesty for all political prisoners tho there was reluctance to let Luxemburg have her freedom.
We need to rally against the government's reluctance to introduce tax incentives.
But the old man, finally, with much reluctance, agreed to re-figure the amount stolen when Dean began to ask how frequently deposits were made and offered to check bank records.
He began to understand her reluctance to be involved with him and how thick the walls around her heart were, if she spent the years since the Schism learning how to shut people and emotion out.
With great reluctance the tsar consented to convoke a consultative chamber of deputies as a sop to public opinion, but that concession stimulated rather than calmed public opinion, and shortly after the conclusion of peace the Liberals and the Revolutionaries, combining their forces, brought about a general strike in St Petersburg together with the stoppage of railway communication all over the empire.
Xavier was seized with fever soon after his arrival, and was delayed by the failure of the interpreter he had engaged, as well as by the reluctance of the Portuguese to attempt the voyage to Canton for the purpose of landing him.
But Mr. Churchill's great coup in the war was the attack on the Dardanelles, which he pressed forward in spite of the increasing reluctance of Lord Fisher.
After Oliver's death Henry hailed with delight the succession of his brother Richard to the office of protector, but although he was now appointed lieutenant and governor general of Ireland, it was only with great reluctance that he remained in that country.
If to these causes be added a certain exclusiveness, which refused to meet a would-be convert more than half-way, we find no difficulty in accounting for the reluctance which the medieval and modern synagogue has felt on the subject.
It was obviously, however, a measure to be used only in the last resort and with extreme reluctance.
Notwithstanding his loyal support of the administration during the struggle, he did not fully approve of its conduct of the war, which he deemed shifting and timid; and it was with great reluctance that he supported Lincoln in 1864 for a second term.
But the only hitherto apparent evidence of such defects is an excessive clinging to the letter of the law; a marked reluctance to exercise discretion; and that, perhaps, i5 attributable rather to the habit of obedience.
In 1868 he was created vice-admiral of the Italian navy, but, two years later, left Italy to ascend the Spanish throne, his reluctance to accept the invitation of the Cortes having been overridden by the Italian cabinet.
Great care was shown not to alienate the Whig leaders in a body, which would have raised up under Pitt's leadership a formidable .party of resistance, but advantage was taken of disagreements between the ministers concerning the war, of personal jealousies, and of the strong reluctance of the old statesmen who had served the crown for generations to identify themselves with active opposition to the king's wishes.
His tact in overcoming the reluctance of the pope to be present at the coronation (it was only eight months after the execution of the duc d'Enghien) received further recognition.
Peter went to Sion, near Delft; Erasmus after prolonged reluctance became an Augustinian canon in St Gregory's at Steyn, a house of the same Chapter near Gouda.
Sigismund, in 1422, even went so far as to propose a partition of Poland between Hungary, the empire and the Silesian princes, a scheme which foundered upon Sigismund's impecuniosity and the reluctance of the Magyars to injure the Poles.
It was only with reluctance that he supported the ambitious projects of Elizabeth Farnese, queen of Spain, in Italy by guaranteeing in 1729 the succession of Don Carlos to the duchies of Parma and Tuscany.
Burnside was by no means the equal of his predecessor, though a capable subordinate, and indeed only accepted the chief command with reluctance.
After the short ministry of Shelburne, succeeding the death of Rockingham, the duke of Portland was selected by Fox and North as a "convenient cipher" to become the head of the coalition ministry, to the formation of which the king was with great reluctance compelled to give his assent.
Bergman somehow neglected it, and this caused for a time a reluctance on Scheele's part to become acquainted with that savant, but the paper, through the instrumentality of Anders Johann Retzius (1742-1821), was ultimately communicated to the Academy of Sciences at Stockholm.
Owing to the great pressure on the soil from the density of the population, to the reluctance to part with land characteristic of small proprietors, to the generally great productiveness of land and to the very light assessment of government revenue, land in Ballia, for agricultural purposes merely, has a market value higher than in almost any other district.
He was one of the original co-signatories of the Holy Alliance, though, in common with most, he signed it with reluctance; and in the counsels of the Grand Alliance he allowed himself to be practically subordinated to Alexander and later to Metternich.
But there was a reluctance to incur the expense of a contest with so powerful a neighbour as New York, and in 1764 that province procured from the king in council a royal order declaring the western boundary of New Hampshire to be the western bank of the Connecticut river.
His letters betray discontent with Elizabeth's reluctance to assist the States; he could not understand her antipathy to rebellious subjects, and he returned in October, having accomplished little.
As yet, however, he had little knowledge of, and less inclination for, astronomy; and it was with extreme reluctance that he turned aside from the more promising career of the ministry to accept, early in 1594, the vacant chair of that science at Gratz, placed at the disposal of the Tubingen professors by the Lutheran states of Styria.
In 1873 he removed from Cincinnati to Fremont, his intention being to withdraw from public life; but in 1875 the Republican party in Ohio once more selected him as its candidate for the governorship. He accepted the nomination with great reluctance.
In 1557 Philip appointed him to the archbishopric of Toledo; he accepted with reluctance, and was consecrated at Brussels on the 27th of February '558.
With much reluctance the royal permission was given and the resignation accepted, on the 10th of May 1532, with many gracious expressions of goodwill on the part of the king.
Henceforth, too, annexations of territory were frequently carried out by the Bohemian crown on the extinction of Silesian dynasties, and the surviving princes showed an increasing reluctance to the exercise of their authority.
On the i 5th of July, after various delays interposed by her reluctance to leave the neighbourhood of the border, where on her arrival she had received the welcome and the homage of the leading Catholic houses of Northumberland and Cumberland, she was removed to Bolton Castle in North Yorkshire.
On the 26th of October the charge of complicity in the murder of Darnley was distinctly brought forward against her in spite of Norfolk's reluctance and Murray's previous hesitation.
But John George's reluctance to join the Protestants disappeared when the imperial troops under Tilly began to ravage Saxony, and in September 1631 he concluded an alliance with the Swedish king.
In view of the scarcely disguised ambitions and intrigues of the Austrian court, Montgelas now believed that the interests of Bavaria lay in a frank alliance with the French republic; he succeeded in overcoming the reluctance of Maximilian Joseph; and, on the 24th of August, a separate treaty of peace and alliance with France was signed at Paris.
It was to obtain popular support for this policy and for the Bavarian claims on Baden that the crown prince pressed for a liberal constitution, the reluctance of Montgelas to concede it being the cause of his dismissal.
The reluctance of the States of Holland, and of Amsterdam in particular, to grant adequate supplies caused the campaigns of 1638 and 1639 to be in the main defensive and dilatory.
Soon afterwards he was elected to succeed Sancroft; but accepted the promotion with extreme reluctance, and it was deferred from time to time, at his request, till April 1691.
In dealing with the revolt of nobles Ernest of Swabia Conrad was aided by the reluctance a-nd the of the vassals of the great lords to follow them against land.