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Reluctant vs Cagey - What's the difference?

reluctant | cagey |

As adjectives the difference between reluctant and cagey

is that reluctant is opposing; offering resistance (to) while cagey is wary, careful, shrewd.

reluctant

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Opposing; offering resistance (to).
  • * 1819 , Lord Byron, Don Juan , II.108:
    • 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 [...].
  • * 2008 , Kern Alexander et al., The World Trade Organization and Trade in Services , p. 222:
    • They are reluctant to the inclusion of a necessity test, especially of a horizontal nature, and emphasize, instead, the importance of procedural disciplines [...].
  • Not wanting to take some action; unwilling.
    • She was reluctant to lend him the money

    Synonyms

    * unwilling, disinclined

    Related terms

    * reluctance * reluctantly

    External links

    * * *

    cagey

    English

    Alternative forms

    * cagy

    Adjective

    (er)
  • wary, careful, shrewd
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=February 6 , author=Alistair Magowan , title=West Ham 0 - 1 Birmingham , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=But with both sides in the Premier League's bottom three before the game began, the three points at stake made for a cagey match.}}
  • uncommunicative; unwilling or hesitant to give information.

    • Derived terms

    * cagily * caginess