All 5 Uses of
reticent
in
Main Street
- Kennicott was not so reticent.
Chpt 14 *reticent = reluctant
- She could—at times—agree with Kennicott that the shaving-and-corsets familiarity of married life was not dreary vulgarity but a wholesome frankness; that artificial reticences might merely be irritating.†
Chpt 15
- The Smails did not "believe in all this nonsense" about privacy and reticence.†
Chpt 20
- Whether she wore a low middy collar or dressed reticently for school in a black suit with a high-necked blouse, she was airy, flippant.†
Chpt 28
- She was startled by the return of her father, startled by a sudden conviction that in this flaxen boy she had found the gray reticent judge who was divine love, perfect under-standing.†
Chpt 29
Definition:
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(reticent) reluctant -- especially to speak freelyeditor's notes: 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.