# reluctant

Pronunciation: say "ri-LUK-tuhnt" /ɹɪˈlʌktənt/

## Adjective

1. Unwilling to take an action, or holding back from something one does not want to do.
   - Simple: Not wanting to do something, often because you feel unsure or afraid.
   - _The witness seemed reluctant to answer any further questions._
   - _Voters remain reluctant to support the proposed tax increase._
2. Of a pattern quantifier, tending to match as little text as possible while still allowing the overall match to succeed.
   - Simple: Set to match as few characters as possible when searching through text.
   - _Switching the quantifier to its reluctant behavior fixed the over-matching bug._
   - _A reluctant search captures the smallest span between the two tags._

## Adjective

3. Resistant to control or authority; defiant and stubbornly opposed, straining against any force applied. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Pushing back against control, and refusing to obey or give in.
   - _The reluctant garrison held out, defying every demand to surrender._
   - _Reluctant waves beat back against the prow as the ship forced its way north._

## 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").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/reluctant (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).