hesitantly

comparative more hesitantly · superlative most hesitantly

1. With hesitation.

   A woman asked, hesitantly: “Is he the one who … self-immolated?”

   2019 April 15, J Oliver Conroy, “A lawyer set himself on fire to protest climate change. Did anyone care?”, in The Guardian

   4 more examples

   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.

   2013, Michael Craft, Boy Toy, →ISBN

   It approaches irrefusably, hesitantly, terrible as fate, the great task and question: how shall the earth as a whole be managed? (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1885)

   2006 December, Michael Lang, “Globalization and Its History”, in The Journal of Modern History, vol. 78, no. 4, page 924

   Grigory hesitantly took her in his arms to kiss her, but she held him off, bent supply backwards and shot a frightened glance at the windows. 'They'll see!' 'Let them!' 'I'd be ashamed—'

   1988, Михаи́л Алекса́ндрович Шо́лохов (Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov), Quiet flows the Don (translated), volume 1, page 96

   The teenager stared down the barrel of Petr's gun for a few seconds, then asked hesitantly, “What kind of questions?” “Something's going on,” Petr began. The pimply deadlingshrugged. “This is Brno, there's always something going on.”

   2023, Kristýna Sněgoňová, “The Dragon of Brno”, in Jakub Mařík, transl., edited by Jakub Mařík and Martin Fajkus, Monster Hunter Fantom. A Monster Hunter Anthology, Baen Books, published 10 May 2024, →ISBN, unnumbered page

2. With reluctance.

   Synonyms: reluctantly