reluctant
- 1Unwilling to take an action, or holding back from something one does not want to do.
The witness seemed reluctant to answer any further questions.
Voters remain reluctant to support the proposed tax increase.
Similarunwilling, disinclined, loath, grudging
Note
Behind the everyday word is a fight. It comes from Latin reluctāns, from reluctor, "to struggle against," built from re- ("back") and luctor ("to struggle"). In English that struggle has softened into holding back. The usual construction is reluctant to plus a verb (reluctant to lend, reluctant to teach). It also sits directly before a noun for someone who does a thing unwillingly, as in a reluctant ball-retriever.
- 2Of a pattern quantifier, tending to match as little text as possible while still allowing the overall match to succeed.
Switching the quantifier to its reluctant behavior fixed the over-matching bug.
A reluctant search captures the smallest span between the two tags.
Similarlazy
Oppositegreedy
Note
A programmer's word that only makes sense beside its opposite, greedy. A greedy quantifier swallows as much input as it can and backtracks only as needed. A reluctant one takes as little as possible and extends only when the rest of the pattern would otherwise fail. The difference shows most clearly when a pattern sits between two delimiters, such as a pair of tags.
- 3Resistant to control or authority; defiant and stubbornly opposed, straining against any force applied.
The reluctant garrison held out, defying every demand to surrender.
Many of the inhabitants were reluctant against the measure, and are still so obstinate that they must be compelled to do their duty.
1866, H. Hjaltelin, “On the Treatment of Virulent and Zymotic Diseases”Note
This is the older, fiercer meaning, in which the Latin struggle traced under the everyday "unwilling" sense is still at full strength. Writers set it against something: reluctant to all the Ordinances of Heaven, reluctant to Christian reproof, reluctant against the measure. Byron's Don Juan (1819) gives a wave a reluctant roar. Since the meaning is now archaic, it is best read rather than used. In an older text, take reluctant as defiant, not merely hesitant.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of reluctant apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
A learned borrowing from Latin reluctāns, the present participle of reluctor ("to struggle against, oppose, resist"), formed from re- ("back") plus luctor ("to struggle").