Library / English Dictionary

RELUCTANTLY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adverb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

With reluctance

Classified under:

Adverbs

Pertainym:

reluctant (unwillingness to do something contrary to your custom)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Helen she held a little longer than me: she let her go more reluctantly; it was Helen her eye followed to the door; it was for her she a second time breathed a sad sigh; for her she wiped a tear from her cheek.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Eliza had confessed to me, though most reluctantly, the name of her lover; and when he returned to town, which was within a fortnight after myself, we met by appointment, he to defend, I to punish his conduct.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

This had been one of the things taught him by the master, and White Fang obeyed, though he lay down reluctantly and sullenly.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Mrs. March had consented to the visit rather reluctantly, fearing that Margaret would come back more discontented than she went.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

So, as twilight deepened, gladly and at the same time reluctantly, I brought the Ghost up on the wind.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The animal dragged itself reluctantly out of his way, licking its chops with a tongue which seemed hardly to have the strength to curl.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

"All right," Joe admitted reluctantly.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

As the day wore along and the sun dropped to its bed in the northwest (the darkness had come back and the fall nights were six hours long), the young bulls retraced their steps more and more reluctantly to the aid of their beset leader.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

I too rose reluctantly; it was bitter cold, and I dressed as well as I could for shivering, and washed when there was a basin at liberty, which did not occur soon, as there was but one basin to six girls, on the stands down the middle of the room.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Reluctantly, and with much hesitation, did she then begin what might perhaps, at the end of half an hour, be termed, by the courtesy of her hearers, an explanation; but scarcely, within that time, could they at all discover the cause, or collect the particulars, of her sudden return.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)