reluctant
- 01 C2 Proficiency
showing strong resistance or being difficult to control.
exhibiting resistance, defiance, or a refractory nature.
Simple“The reluctant horse refused to move even when offered a carrot.”
In context“The poet described the reluctant soil of the wasteland, which resisted every attempt at cultivation by the weary farmers.”
Synonyms - 02 C1 Advanced
in computer programming, matching as little text as possible when searching.
describing a quantifier that matches the shortest possible string; also known as non-greedy.
Simple“You should use a reluctant quantifier if you only want to find the first match.”
In context“By default, the engine uses greedy matching, but you can switch to a reluctant approach to capture the smallest possible substring.”
“Yet the journalist appears reluctant to focus on the pressures he's under, preferring instead to highlight the plight of compatriots in prison.”
“She was reluctant to leave, having already expressed concern about how Jude would manage without her.”
Learned borrowing from Latin reluctāns, present participle of reluctor (“to struggle against, oppose, resist”), from re- (“back”) + luctor (“to struggle”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.