RELUCTANCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does reluctance mean? 

• RELUCTANCE (noun)
  The noun RELUCTANCE has 2 senses:

1. (physics) opposition to magnetic flux (analogous to electric resistance)

2. a certain degree of unwillingness

  Familiarity information: RELUCTANCE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RELUCTANCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(physics) opposition to magnetic flux (analogous to electric resistance)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Hypernyms ("reluctance" is a kind of...):

electrical phenomenon (a physical phenomenon involving electricity)

Domain category:

natural philosophy; physics (the science of matter and energy and their interactions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A certain degree of unwillingness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

disinclination; hesitancy; hesitation; indisposition; reluctance

Context example:

after some hesitation he agreed

Hypernyms ("reluctance" is a kind of...):

involuntariness; unwillingness (the trait of being unwilling)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reluctance"):

sloth; slothfulness (a disinclination to work or exert yourself)

Derivation:

reluctant (not eager)

reluctant (disinclined to become involved)

reluctant (unwillingness to do something contrary to your custom)

 Context examples 

He again paused: there seemed a reluctance to continue.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But Fanny shewed such reluctance, such misery, at the idea of going down to him, that Sir Thomas, after a little consideration, judged it better to indulge her.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I cannot bear to imagine any reluctance on his side; but I am sure there is a great wish on the Churchills' to keep him to themselves.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

They took some time (not so much on account of their variety, as Jip's reluctance), and were still unfinished when it was heard at the door.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The jaws opened with reluctance, and Wolf Larsen stepped free.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Elinor submitted to the arrangement which counteracted her wishes with less reluctance than she had expected to feel.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The real reason lay in the reluctance which Mr. Holmes has shown to the continued publication of his experiences.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Anne talked of being perfectly ready, and tried to look it; but she felt that could Henrietta have known the regret and reluctance of her heart in quitting that chair, in preparing to quit the room, she would have found, in all her own sensations for her cousin, in the very security of his affection, wherewith to pity her.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The general, accustomed on every ordinary occasion to give the law in his family, prepared for no reluctance but of feeling, no opposing desire that should dare to clothe itself in words, could ill brook the opposition of his son, steady as the sanction of reason and the dictate of conscience could make it.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Mary was obliged to mix more with the world, but she could still moralize over every morning visit; and as she was no longer mortified by comparisons between her sisters' beauty and her own, it was suspected by her father that she submitted to the change without much reluctance.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)