Hesitated vs Reluctant - What's the difference?
hesitated | reluctant |
(hesitate)
To stop or pause respecting decision or action; to be in suspense or uncertainty as to a determination.
To stammer; to falter in speaking.
(transitive, poetic, rare) To utter with hesitation or to intimate by a reluctant manner.
*
Opposing; offering resistance (to).
* 1819 , Lord Byron, Don Juan , II.108:
* 2008 , Kern Alexander et al., The World Trade Organization and Trade in Services , p. 222:
Not wanting to take some action; unwilling.
As a verb hesitated
is (hesitate).As an adjective reluctant is
opposing; offering resistance (to).hesitated
English
Verb
(head)hesitate
English
Alternative forms
* (archaic)Verb
(hesitat)- He hesitated''' whether to accept the offer or not; men often '''hesitate in forming a judgment.
- (Alexander Pope)
- Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike.
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . SeeSynonyms
* deliberate * demur * doubt * falter * mammer * scruple * stammer * waverDerived terms
* hesitant * hesitationExternal links
* * *reluctant
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- There, breathless, with his digging nails he clung / Fast to the sand, lest the returning wave, / From whose reluctant roar his life he wrung, / Should suck him back to her insatiate grave [...].
- They are reluctant to the inclusion of a necessity test, especially of a horizontal nature, and emphasize, instead, the importance of procedural disciplines [...].
- She was reluctant to lend him the money