reluctance

Founding-era definition · Webster's 1828 American Dictionary

RELUCT'ANCE, RELUCT'ANCY, noun [literally a straining or striving against.] Unwillingness; great opposition of mind; repugnance; with to or against; as, to undertake a war with reluctance He has a great reluctance to this measure. Bear witness, heav'n with what reluctancy her helpless innocence I doom to die.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI

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