Unwillingness
[ʌn'wɪlɪŋnɪs]
Definition
(noun.) the trait of being unwilling; 'his unwillingness to cooperate vetoed every proposal I made'; 'in spite of our warnings he plowed ahead with the involuntariness of an automaton'.
Typed by Chauncey--From WordNet
Examples
- Let no one suppose that the unwillingness to cultivate what Mr. Wells calls the mental hinterland is a vice peculiar to the business man. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- We must be going with the rest,' observed Mrs Lammle, rising with a show of unwillingness, amidst a general dispersal. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Ivanhoe expressed great repugnance to this plan, which he grounded on unwillingness to give farther trouble to his benefactors. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- The remissness of our people in paying taxes is highly blameable, the unwillingness to pay them is still more so. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- Her unwillingness to quit her mother was her only restorative to calmness; and at the moment of parting her grief on that score was excessive. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- All the stultification of the stand-pat mind may be described as inability, and perhaps unwillingness, to nourish a fruitful choice of issues. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- After another silence, the husband of the absent woman, turning to me again, answered me with his usual grumbling unwillingness. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Why else should he have shewn such unwillingness to accept your invitation here? Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- Observant of his unwillingness to mar the effect by opening it again, Defarge said, Go on, Jacques. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
Checked by Abram