All 9 Uses of
reticent
in
Howards End
- The affections are more reticent than the passions, and their expression more subtle.†
Part 2reticent = reluctant -- usually to speak freely
- A reticent fellow, he made no reply.
Part 3 *reticent = reluctant to speak freely
- They had got into conversation, and gradually Leonard flung reticence aside, told some of his domestic troubles and hinted at the rest.†
Part 14reticence = reluctance -- usually to speak freely
- His reticence was not entirely the shoddy article that a business life promotes, the reticence that pretends that nothing is something, and hides behind the Daily Telegraph.†
Part 14
- His reticence was not entirely the shoddy article that a business life promotes, the reticence that pretends that nothing is something, and hides behind the Daily Telegraph.†
Part 14
- The adventurer, also, is reticent, and it is an adventure for a clerk to walk for a few hours in darkness.†
Part 14reticent = reluctant -- usually to speak freely
- And these were women with a theory, who held that reticence about money matters is absurd, and that life would be truer if each would state the exact size of the golden island upon which he stands, the exact stretch of warp over which he throws the woof that is not money.†
Part 16reticence = reluctance -- usually to speak freely
- Shropshire had not the reticence of Hertfordshire.†
Part 25
- Most of them stared, some said, "What's that to you?" but one, who had not yet acquired reticence, told him what he wished.†
Part 41
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.