toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

reticent
in a sentence

show 189 more with this conextual meaning
  • Anybody meeting him there for the first time might have thought him reticent. Almost timid.   (source)
  • Given Jai's reticence, I knew I had to look honestly at my motivations. Why was this talk so important to me?   (source)
    reticence = reluctance
  • one of our most widespread virtues was a certain reticence concerning personal misfortune.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance to speak
  • She put off her sister's reticence [to get romantically involved or to speak of it] to that independent streak of hers.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance
  • If he made a cryptic or broad statement, it was best not to challenge him, because then he might grow reticent.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant to speak
  • ...whatever the differences in their situations, both types are equally reticent. Even the young couple who stop at a drink vending machine, tightly pressed against each other, have no more words for each other.   (source)
  • a sensitive and reticent boy   (source)
  • Moody was reticent, for here was an opportunity for me to elude his control.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant
  • Tracy was reticent;   (source)
    reticent = reluctant -- usually to speak freely
  • I would, of course, understand your reticence, but I encourage you to go; I want you to take advantage of every opportunity here, and the Dark Daughters is an exclusive organization.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance
  • Jasper had never been reticent, but now it seemed he had to be talking every waking minute as a means of holding his own fears in balance.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant to speak
  • You have to learn to be more reticent.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant -- usually to speak freely
  • ...if the chaplain's reticent, unimpressive manner were really just a sinister disguise masking a fiery ambition that...   (source)
    reticent = reluctant
  • Reticence ... may distort ... what is really there to be said,   (source)
    reticence = reluctance to speak freely
  • Max's roommate seemed on the verge of saying something else but did not. Cooper was not so reticent.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant to speak freely
  • She looked oddly at me, as if surprised by my reticence.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance to speak freely
  • underlying all this... was both delicacy and reticence.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance (usually to speak freely)
  • Pour your heart out to me, Bessie. Don't be reticent.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant
  • The youth knew me and had no reticence in talking...   (source)
    reticence = reluctance
  • "No, he was kinda reticent about that part of it. Just said the fellow-was out for his blood and meant to get it."   (source)
    reticent = reluctant to speak
  • This was the answer to Ashley's reticence,   (source)
    reticence = reluctance
  • Actually, this self-imposed reticence cost him little effort.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance to speak
  • There was some reticence about entering the new boat, because it had a scroll on it which warned people off unless they were in perfect faith...   (source)
    reticence = reluctance
  • But she is reticent,   (source)
    reticent = reluctant -- usually to speak freely
  • she herself has become reticent on the subject, and has not spoken of the Count or his doings ever since we told her of our decision.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant to speak
  • She was afraid of reticence, in case something that she herself did not perceive took shape beneath it,   (source)
    reticence = reluctance to speak
  • His reticence was sufficiently explained for most of us by his voyages,   (source)
  • But she was flustered by Angus's sleek assurance, by his homage to her eyes and wit and reticence.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance
  • She was quick at understanding the grandmothers who spoke no English, and the most reticent and distrustful of them would tell her their story without realizing they were doing so.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant to speak freely
  • He thought the adieux of Montague and Ada Dyas as fine as anything he had ever seen Croisette and Bressant do in Paris, or Madge Robertson and Kendal in London; in its reticence, its dumb sorrow, it moved him more than the most famous histrionic outpourings.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance
  • Why should she have been so reticent at the time of the tragedy?   (source)
    reticent = reluctant
  • Too long had he cultivated reticence, aloofness, and moroseness.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance -- usually to speak freely
  • I could recognise in her ... and reticent advances ... and restraints which had characterised her father.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant -- usually to speak freely
  • his manner is not in the least deferential, but cool and reticent, keeping them quite effectually at a distance   (source)
    reticent = reluctant
  • What was your reason for this reticence?   (source)
    reticence = reluctance
  • She showed her usual reticence to her parents, and only said, that if Lydgate had done as she wished he would have left Middlemarch long ago.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance to speak freely
  • ...replying in his heavy reticent way,   (source)
    reticent = reluctant
  • Athos had even gone so far as to question M. de Treville—a thing which, considering the habitual reticence of the worthy Musketeer, had very much astonished his captain.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance to speak
  • The professional historians of the United States are very reticent in their treatment of these themes.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant -- usually to speak freely
  • He's oddly reticent about such details — what goes on in his life when she's not there.†   (source)
  • He was, for reasons she didn't understand, embarrassed about his insomnia, reticent to the point of silence whenever she asked in the mornings how long he'd been awake.†   (source)
  • But when he reaches the fourth floor he understands their reticence and can hardly blame them.†   (source)
  • Ewa was reticent, but warmed up as Lotte recounted her own journey.†   (source)
  • All have been accused of crimes they speak of only with reticence, anxious about what traps might lurk within any question he puts to them.†   (source)
  • She had green eyes and sharp bones in her face, and hollow cheeks, and there was something brittle in her reticence that suggested strong will and a temper easily lost.†   (source)
  • Brow furrowed, polite but reticent, she looked at me blankly with the golden-brown eyes: a stranger.†   (source)
  • As boisterous and animated as Martin Silenus seemed upon first encounter, so the next guest at the table exuded an immediate and equally impressive sense of intelligent reticence.†   (source)
  • The distance was too great, Minnie's reticence too profound.†   (source)
  • In classic sniper style, Vie is reticent, unobtrusive.†   (source)
  • Eragon nodded, neither upset nor surprised, although the woman's reticence had piqued his curiosity even more.†   (source)
  • "Reticence or common sense," said the undersecretary.†   (source)
  • For Caroline, this reticence gave him an air of mystery, and the mystery increased her sense that she knew him in ways the others did not.†   (source)
  • Solitude and reticence are unnatural to them.†   (source)
  • Waiting to see the look of confusion or reticence in his eyes, but it never comes.†   (source)
  • He had been a reticent child, and later became a timid man.†   (source)
  • Forgive my reticence in contacting you before.†   (source)
  • I expected the mighty warrior to be more reticent.†   (source)
  • Orsians were blunt when it suited them, and at other times oddly, frustratingly reticent.†   (source)
  • On the other hand, history is reticent about women who were common soldiers, who bore arms, belonged to regiments, and took part in battles on the same terms as men, though hardly a war has been waged without women soldiers in the ranks.†   (source)
  • As the author of the Summary View, the young Virginian had, as Adams said, achieved "the reputation of a masterly pen," and however reticent in Congress, he proved "prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive upon committees and in conversation…… " That Jefferson, after attending the College of William and Mary, had read law at Williamsburg for five years with the eminent George Wythe, gave him still greater standing with Adams, who considered Wythe one of the ablest men in Congress.†   (source)
  • At first I thought this was a natural reticence born of respect for his own great suffering.†   (source)
  • She dared not open her eyes for fear she might see in his some reticence or doubt or even pity.†   (source)
  • With Therry and Ser Bartimus he was less reticent.†   (source)
  • She felt that there was a new reticence between them which, strangely, was a new kind of intimacy.†   (source)
  • Some were so diffident and fearful that in their fragile reticence often lived the truest, most infinitely prized beauty.†   (source)
  • I declined the snort, not out of any real reticence but because in those days I imbibed only cheap American beer.†   (source)
  • My father was his very opposite, all that was stable, reticent, self-contained, willing to be patient if need be, and, in all he said, factual.†   (source)
  • Morrisonville women were reticent and weary.†   (source)
  • His face had an aristocratic quality, the fugitive spark and reticent delicacy that give an impression of remoteness and are sometimes found in people of a complex, mixed parentage.†   (source)
  • Arriving in Washington, Adams promptly indicated his disregard for both party affiliations and customary freshman reticence.†   (source)
  • He was extraordinarily reticent; he said merely that he was helping Turner to take his wife away.†   (source)
  • "Tell me in ten words or less," she suggested, sensing his reticence.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance to speak freely
  • Unlike Kim, who'd been outgoing and gregarious, he'd always been more reticent and blended into crowds.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant -- usually to speak freely
  • I told her what a hoot we all thought it was when these rich guys paid six million for Secretariat after his running days were over ... and then he turned out to be a reticent breeder,   (source)
    reticent = reluctant
  • ...they were wily and cunning and did not directly attack him. Their reticence puzzled Eragon until...   (source)
    reticence = reluctance
  • There was no reticence about Mr Johnston's past.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance to speak freely
  • It is invariably one of suspicion and the natural result is reticence.   (source)
  • she proceeded to state without reticence of expression that.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance
  • He a-hemmed again with delicate reticence, and continued:   (source)
    reticence = reluctance -- usually to speak freely
  • "Yuh--" Then he was pouring it out nakedly, robbed of reticence.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance
  • a good deal of mysterious reticence on Mrs. Penniman's part.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance to speak freely
  • the reticence of her tongue only made the loquacity of her face the more noticeable.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance
  • any question about her acquaintances brought forth a volume of detail; but on the subject of Ethan Frome I found her unexpectedly reticent.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant to speak freely
  • Eleanor was a reticent woman at heart.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant to speak freely or show feelings
  • A reticent fellow, he made no reply.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant to speak freely
  • Kennicott was not so reticent.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant
  • In short, Mr Blandois found that to pour port wine into the reticent Flintwinch was, not to open him but to shut him up.   (source)
    reticent = reluctant -- usually to speak freely
  • Her normal manner among the heathfolk had that reticence which results from the consciousness of superior communicative power.   (source)
    reticence = reluctance to speak freely
  • even if the most delicate reticence on the point could have been expected from Raveloe gossips in her presence, her own questions about her mother could not have been parried,   (source)
    reticence = reluctance to speak about the topic
  • Reasoning on the cause of their reticence he concluded that ... [they] were afraid to broach the subject,   (source)
    reticence = reluctance to speak freely
  • When I next saw him, two years after we first met, he had grown much more reticent.†   (source)
  • Logan's natural reticence actually seemed to give Ben room to express himself.†   (source)
  • I understood my reticence, and I banished it in time to save my life.†   (source)
  • The whites, especially the tourists, had no reticence before us, and no shame since we were Negroes.†   (source)
  • But my efforts to put him off had only made him more determined that I should share in the profits; the more I tried to brush off his offer, the more persistent he grew; with typical generosity, he attributed my reticence to "modesty" although my real fear was that a partnership would shed a certain official light on unofficial goings-on in the shop—goings-on that would shock poor Hobie to the soles of his John Lobb shoes, if he knew.†   (source)
  • It was not merely his reticence and sensitivity, it was an intensity that he emanated even when merely observing.†   (source)
  • A reticence broken only by her secret, droopy smiles and the furtive, apologetic looks she cast my way when the general's attention was engaged elsewhere.†   (source)
  • Your covering letter was admirably reticent, but you did hint that you had almost no free time at present.†   (source)
  • For some reason (natural prudence perhaps, and an instinctive reticence with foreigners) she did not evince the keen interest that he seemed to expect from her about the Man with Twin Sons.†   (source)
  • There would be a funeral in the village at which Briony's dignified reticence would hint at the vastness of her sorrow.†   (source)
  • He thought however, that he would take advantage of the occasion to have Amaranta confess after twenty years of reticence.†   (source)
  • While he was growing up, I thought him quiet, yet his reticence, like Anna's, seemed directed at me in particular.†   (source)
  • It was Mr. Hickey, in retrospect, who was sometimes reticent, as he would look up and nod wanly when I entered the store, and after a few weeks I'd first check to see if Mrs. Hickey was there before deciding to go inside.†   (source)
  • As always, Joseph was reticent in my presence, but as soon as he saw Noah, he brightened considerably.†   (source)
  • In some sections she was particularly reticent about details and went to a lot of trouble not to supply any evidence that could back up in any way the many claims she was making.†   (source)
  • Fredric detected the reticence in his bearing, however, for he said, "And yet you are not entirely pleased, Shadeslayer."†   (source)
  • He would pass the time at Yossarian's and Dunbar's table with a shy, reticent smile, seldom speaking unless addressed, a glass of thick sweet wine almost untasted before him as he toyed unfamiliarly with the tiny corncob pipe that he affected selfconsciously and occasionally stuffed with tobacco and smoked.†   (source)
  • I didn't know what reticent meant.†   (source)
  • July was reticent about such things and would walk far into the woods when he had to go, to spare her any embarrassment.†   (source)
  • Thus, the girls were no longer always together, and Nancy deeply felt the daytime absence of her friend, the one person with whom she need be neither brave nor reticent.†   (source)
  • She found his reticence and shyness strangely irritating--it sometimes made her want to tell him what she had really done before they married.†   (source)
  • Oromis and Glaedr, and my mother too, had sound reasons for keeping the Eldunari a secret, but their reticence was nearly our undoing.†   (source)
  • I now realize that the pursuit of success at work combined with my natural reticence kept me at arm's length from the rest of the family, and I've come to believe that I've always been something of an outsider in my own house.†   (source)
  • The way Nana studiously avoided the topic—and the four-year hole in his life—suggested that she understood his reticence.†   (source)
  • Their eyes had yet to meet, their judgment had not been overwhelmed, and the accident that had tested their patience was as if the terrace at Cap dAntibes had been transported to Gruensee, as if the reticent graces for which she longed had been married hypnotically with the stronger things that drove men to women and women to men, in a place like this, the first refuge from battle.†   (source)
  • They conducted their duties humbly and reticently, with a minimum of fuss, and went to great lengths not to antagonize anyone.†   (source)
  • A job always conquers your reticence.†   (source)
  • As Alessandro sat in the bed, and she stood still, he fell so deeply in love with her, so hard, and so fast, that he was able to follow her even in her reticence.†   (source)
  • There was an excess of energy about him that separated him from everyone else, but in the motion of his hands there was, instead of the craving for communication, something of reticence, even of secrecy, as the key rose and fell.†   (source)
  • What I have come to like best in the whole of Russian literature is the childlike Russian quality of Pushkin and Chekhov, their modest reticence in such high-sounding matters as the ultimate purpose of mankind or their own salvation.†   (source)
  • Although Sophie was extremely open with me about her life in Warsaw and her capture and her stay in the jail, she became curiously reticent about her actual deportation to Auschwitz and her arrival there.†   (source)
  • The reason for his revision and rewriting was his search for strength and exactness of expression, but they also followed the promptings of an inward reticence that forbade him to disclose his personal experiences and the real events in his past with too much freedom, lest he offend or wound those who had directly taken part in them.†   (source)
  • I stared at my black hands, saw the gold wedding band and mumbled something meaningless, hoping he would see my reticence.†   (source)
  • A widower for nine years, he surely deserved to, but like most Southerners (or Americans, for that matter) of his vintage he was reticent, even secretive, about sex, and his life in that sphere was to me a mystery.†   (source)
  • Thus with Sophie it may have been this complex of emotions that caused her to be silent about certain things—this corrosive guilt together with a simple but passionately motivated reticence.†   (source)
  • I have spoken several times about Sophie's reticence concerning Auschwitz, her firm and generally unyielding silence about that fetid sinkhole of her past.†   (source)
  • Two full weeks had gone by, and when Sophie suggested to the doctor, with a great reticence, that perhaps she was in need of an M.D., a real diagnostician, he flew into the closest approximation of a rage she had ever seen in this almost pathologically benign man.†   (source)
  • At Duke, Jack had wanted to become a sculptor, and now after postwar study at the Art Students' League, he had removed himself to the serene little hills behind Nyack to fashion huge objects in cast iron and sheet metal—aided (he allowed to me without reticence) by what might be construed as a fine dowry, since his bride was the daughter of one of the biggest cotton-mill owners in South Carolina.†   (source)
  • Although he had told me in large (though generally impenetrable) detail about the technical nature of his research (enzymes, ion transference, permeable membranes, etc., also the fetus of that miserable rabbit), he had never divulged to me—nor had I out of reticence asked—anything concerning the ultimate justification for this complex and, beyond doubt, profoundly challenging biological enterprise.†   (source)
  • I note these things because it is harrowing to see decent-looking men and boys assume that because a man is black they need show him none of the reticences they would, out of respect, show the most derelict white man.†   (source)
  • Fetching, that is, in a maddeningly frustrating way: it let loose practically all of her dammed-up reticences about sex.†   (source)
  • I continued to take notes on Ross's life, but each successive morning found him more reticent.†   (source)
  • He had nothing in his nature of reticence or of chivalry toward women.†   (source)
  • Leave us some dignity, some reticence to remember out of our marriage.†   (source)
  • In Europe my wife was sometimes taken for an American because of her dapper and jaunty way of dressing, and the curiously hygienic quality of her prettiness; in America she assumed an English softness and reticence.†   (source)
  • She hated secrecy; an air of mystery, a crafty but knowing reticence, or the unfathomable depths of other-wordliness goaded her to fury.†   (source)
  • Big, inflamed, reticent eyes, a reddish beard, red sullen lips, and across his nose a blotch; the night before, when he was drunk or sleepy, he had walked into the door of a taxi.†   (source)
  • With those reticent, blood-flickered eyes of his he looked at me like someone who had to explain he was born to difficulty and hard luck, and he opened his lips before starting to speak, as if to separate the upper and lower hairs of the beard.†   (source)
  • The facades of the buildings around him were like the walls of secret backyards suddenly exposed: decay without reticence, past the need of privacy or shame.†   (source)
  • My wife's softness and English reticence, her very white, small regular teeth, her neat rosy finger-nails, her schoolgirl air of innocent mischief and her schoolgirl dress, her modern jewelry, which was made at great expense to give the impression, at a distance, of having been mass produced, her ready, rewarding smile, her deference to me and her zeal in my interests, her motherly heart which made her cable daily to the nanny at home—in short, her peculiar charm—made her popular among…†   (source)
  • Mrs Pengelley, her reticence leaving her, plunged into a full recital more suited to the ears of her medical attendant.†   (source)
  • Her gentle efforts to guide the hand of destiny, by decoying her master with feeble tricks or by reticent considerations—these had not been strong enough to be recognized in the despotism of life.†   (source)
  • Years before, he had so insulted her that now Miss Pitty never spoke of him except in guarded whispers and with so great reticence that a stranger would have thought the honest old lawyer a murderer, at the least.†   (source)
  • Helen had long been aware of the reticence of these outdoor men.†   (source)
  • Could intensity of love justify what might be considered in upright souls as culpable reticence?†   (source)
  • But Cleve appeared to become gloomy and reticent.†   (source)
  • But now here on the stand, he grew once more nervous and reticent.†   (source)
  • He was forty years old, and by his nature very silent and reticent.†   (source)
  • The innkeeper grew a little less furtive and reticent after that.†   (source)
  • But when her turn came to ask questions she found him reticent.†   (source)
  • In the last few days his glance had become very unsteady and reticent.†   (source)
  • Assuredly Carmichael had been somber and reticent enough to rouse the gravest fears.†   (source)
  • But in a reticent way Dick was still vague and sleepy when they reached the pier at Cannes.†   (source)
  • Soon he detected in her a wonderful reticence.†   (source)
  • The Smails did not "believe in all this nonsense" about privacy and reticence.†   (source)
  • The affections are more reticent than the passions, and their expression more subtle.†   (source)
  • But it's rather nice, his long reticence."†   (source)
  • Shropshire had not the reticence of Hertfordshire.†   (source)
  • In contrast to his former reticent taciturnity Prince Andrew now seemed excited.†   (source)
  • I am sure this—what should I say, constraint, reticence in you will vanish at last.'†   (source)
  • 'So you have noticed reticence …. as you expressed it …. constraint?'†   (source)
  • There was a little more reticence now than formerly in Thomasin's manner towards her cousin.†   (source)
  • Lydgate too was reticent in the midst of his confidence.†   (source)
  • There was an emphatic kind of reticence in Mr. Chichely's manner of speaking.†   (source)
  • 'And would you like to know the reason of this reticence?†   (source)
  • In spite of her general reticence, she needed some one who would recognize her wrongs.†   (source)
  • "Ah, you didn't mean me to know it; I call that ungenerous reticence.†   (source)
  • Round the camp fire that night Tom made the further acquaintance of Spades Harkaway, and found him an unique character, reticent as to himself, but not unwilling to talk about Texas, the buffalo, and the Indians.†   (source)
  • Philip wondered whether there was in him really anything: his reticence, the haggard look of him, the pungent humour, seemed to suggest personality, but might be no more than an effective mask which covered nothing.†   (source)
  • I respected your reticence.†   (source)
  • But even if he laid it on a little thick, he was still low on the ladder, as it were, and so patience and reticence were certainly appropriate behavior.†   (source)
  • He was not eloquent, but there was a dignity in this constitutional reticence, there was a high seriousness in his stammerings.†   (source)
  • Madeline and her friends dared not break the spell, for fear that the Englishman might hold to his usual modest reticence.†   (source)
  • When Mrs. Grose finally got up she kept the child's hand, so that the two were still before me; and the singular reticence of our communion was even more marked in the frank look she launched me.†   (source)
  • I found Montgomery very reticent about his purpose with these creatures, and about his destination; and though I was sensible of a growing curiosity as to both, I did not press him.†   (source)
  • This reticence exasperated the curiosity of the young ladies, who crowded round little Giry, begging her to explain herself.†   (source)
  • And you are so reticent.†   (source)
  • In such circumstances of clamour, of outcry, of the crash of many people running together, of the professional reticence of such people as hotel-keepers, the traditional reticence of such "good people" as the Ashburnhams—in such circumstances it is some little material object, always, that catches the eye and that appeals to the imagination.†   (source)
  • 4 May—I found that my landlord had got a letter from the Count, directing him to secure the best place on the coach for me; but on making inquiries as to details he seemed somewhat reticent, and pretended that he could not understand my German.†   (source)
  • But the reason he did not openly accuse Longstreth, the secret of his reticence and fear—these Duane thought best to try to learn at some later time.†   (source)
  • The incongruity of death with either the beauties of Lake Geneva or with his mother's dignified, reticent attitude diverted him, and he looked at the funeral with an amused tolerance.†   (source)
  • There was one stone which was very beautiful, a bas relief of two young men holding each other's hand; and the reticence of line, the simplicity, made one like to think that the sculptor here had been touched with a genuine emotion.†   (source)
  • When he had left Gottlieb at his stupid brown little house, his face as reticent as though the midnight supper and all the rambling talk had never happened, Martin ran home altogether drunk.†   (source)
  • As we turned into the Corbury road the snow began to fall again, cutting off our last glimpse of the house; and Frome's silence fell with it, letting down between us the old veil of reticence.†   (source)
  • And afterwards he could hear them talking—not to him so much—he had proved too reticent thus far—but to some of the others.†   (source)
  • The smart shopping-district, with rich and quiet light on crystal pendants and furs and suave surfaces of polished wood in velvet-hung reticent windows.†   (source)
  • She had told him she was not now at Marlott, but had been curiously reticent as to her actual address, and the only course was to go to Marlott and inquire for it.†   (source)
  • …Quarter, talking, writing poetry: Cronshaw became a picturesque figure, an English Verlaine; and Leonard Upjohn's coloured phrases took on a tremulous dignity, a more pathetic grandiloquence, as he described the sordid end, the shabby little room in Soho; and, with a reticence which was wholly charming and suggested a much greater generosity than modesty allowed him to state, the efforts he made to transport the Poet to some cottage embowered with honeysuckle amid a flowering orchard.†   (source)
  • His belief in celibacy, so reticent, so carefully concealed beneath his tolerance and culture, now came to the surface and expanded like some delicate flower.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)