hesitantly
adverb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L14354 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
adv
Etymology: Etymology tree Latin haereō Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Italic *-tos Latin -tus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin -tō ▲ Latin -tō Latin -itō Latin -titō Latin haesitō Latin haesitānsbor. English hesitant Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-Germanic *-ê Proto-Germanic *-līkê Proto-West Germanic *-līkē Old English -līċe Middle English -ly English -ly English hesitantly From hesitant + -ly.
- With hesitation.
“The sounds from Barb's clarinet began to take the shape of a melody, played quietly at first, hesitantly, with a misblown note here and there.”
“It approaches irrefusably, hesitantly, terrible as fate, the great task and question: how shall the earth as a whole be managed? (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1885)”
- With reluctance.