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Wince vs Reluctant - What's the difference?

wince | reluctant |

As a noun wince

is a sudden movement or gesture of shrinking away.

As a verb wince

is to flinch as if in pain or distress.

As an adjective reluctant is

opposing; offering resistance (to).

wince

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A sudden movement or gesture of shrinking away.
  • A reel used in dyeing, steeping, or washing cloth; a winch. It is placed over the division wall between two wince pits so as to allow the cloth to descend into either compartment at will.
  • Verb

    (winc)
  • To flinch as if in pain or distress.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • I will not stir, nor wince , nor speak a word.
  • * , chapter=17
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“Perhaps it is because I have been excommunicated. It's absurd, but I feel like the Jackdaw of Rheims.” ¶ She winced and bowed her head. Each time that he spoke flippantly of the Church he caused her pain.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1935, author=
  • , title=The Norwich Victims, chapter=7/2 citation , passage=The two Gordon setters came obediently to heel. Sir Oswald Feiling winced as he turned to go home. He had felt a warning twinge of lumbago.}}
  • To wash (cloth), dip it in dye, etc., with the use of a wince.
  • To kick or flounce when unsteady or impatient.
  • 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