guarded
/ˈɡɑːdɪd
/adjective
Cautious and having possible reservations: he has given a guarded welcome to the idea...
- The question took him by surprise, and his eyes grew guarded and cautious, his own grip tightening as well.
- In the light of all this, Paul probably would wonder about the times that we live our faith in guarded or cautious ways.
- There, though, the problems raised are only touched upon in a guarded fashion, with careful reservations and with a noticeable reluctance to arrive at a positive resolution.
Synonyms
cautious, careful, circumspect, wary, chary, reluctant, non-committal, reticent, restrained, reserved, controlled, moderate, discreet, unrevealing, vague, diplomatic, prudent, politic, tactful;
with reservations
informal cagey, leery
Derivatives
guardedly
/ adverb ...- This means that there will be major upheavals at the level of the constituency and I use the word upheaval guardedly, because there are several constituencies that will no longer exist.
- Without denying the range of challenges that face all political parties - from left to right - which seek to engage the public actively in issues of government and governance, the conclusion of the conference was guardedly optimistic.
- We expect this to continue into the next quarter and, barring any about turns in the world economy, we remain guardedly optimistic for the remainder of the year.
guardedness
/ noun ...- The degree of guardedness rises proportionally to how much I like the person; in essence, the closer I would like to be to you the less I will tell you about anything.
- It justifies her guardedness, and the audience is thus able to be protective of and sensitive to her.
- Yet he knows such things are fickle and there's a weary guardedness about him.