All 6 Uses of
reticent
in
Arrowsmith
- Clif had no reticences; when he was not telling slimy stories he was demanding, "How much chuh pay for those shoes—must think you're a Vanderbilt!" or "D'I see you walking with that Madeline Fox femme—what chuh tryin' to do?"†
Chpt 3
- 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.†
Chpt 4reticent = reluctant -- usually to speak freely
- If she was vulgar, jocular, unreticent, she was also gallant, she was full of laughter at humbugs, she was capable of a loyalty too casual and natural to seem heroic.†
Chpt 6unreticent = not reluctantstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unreticent means not and reverses the meaning of reticent. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- But she was flustered by Angus's sleek assurance, by his homage to her eyes and wit and reticence.
Chpt 7 *reticence = reluctance
- McGurk had bullied Dr. Tubbs now and then; Tubbs was compelled to scurry to his office as though he were a messenger boy; yet when he saw the saturnine eyes of Gottlieb, McGurk looked interested; and the two men, the bulky, clothes-conscious, powerful, reticent American and the cynical, simple, power-despising European, became friends.†
Chpt 27reticent = reluctant -- usually to speak freely
- Now Stokes of St. Swithin's was a reticent man and hard, but when they had the last bag upstairs, he leaned his head against a door, cried, "My God, Arrowsmith, I'm so glad you've got here," and broke from them, running......One of the Negro harbor-police, expressionless, speaking the English of the Antilles with something of the accent of Piccadilly, said, "Sar, have you any other command for I?†
Chpt 33
Definition:
reluctant -- especially to speak freely
Synonym Comparison (if you're into word choice):
Consider using taciturn rather than reticent when the reluctance to speak is a general disposition rather than a short-term situation brought about by particular circumstance.
Consider using taciturn rather than reticent when the reluctance to speak is a general disposition rather than a short-term situation brought about by particular circumstance.