irresolute
/ɪˈrɛzəluːt
/adjective
Showing or feeling hesitancy; uncertain: she stood irresolute outside his door...
- His delivery is purposefully nervous, artfully irresolute.
- In the myth-making of the Middle East, it allowed the West to be portrayed as weak and irresolute.
- Gimmicks like that were the stuff of the weak and the irresolute.
Synonyms
indecisive, hesitant, tentative, nervous, weak;
vacillating, equivocating, dithering, wavering, teetering, fluctuating, faltering, shilly-shallying;
ambivalent, divided, in two minds, in a dilemma, in a quandary, torn;
doubtful, in doubt, full of doubt, unsure, uncertain;
undecided, uncommitted, unresolved, undetermined
informal iffy, blowing hot and cold, sitting on the fence
Derivatives
irresolutely
/ adverb ...- Therefore, instead of a final dispensation, the story of a monster at the limit of the tellable concludes irresolutely, even incoherently.
- Then, she walked slowly, irresolutely up the stairway.
- Armed with pencil and paper, I stood there irresolutely, protesting.
irresoluteness
/ noun ...- What inflames the Arab street is not American strength but the perception of American irresoluteness.
- Many think that voting out an incumbent president in wartime shows national irresoluteness, even cowardice.
- Resoluteness is not morally better than irresoluteness.
Origin
Late 16th century: from Latin irresolutus 'not loosened', or from in-1 'not' + resolute.
Rhymes
- watchmaker
- watchmaking
- watchman
- watchnight
- watch one's mouth
- watch one's (or someone's) back
- watch one's step
- watch someone like a hawk
- watch spring
- watch the clock
- watch the pennies
- watch the time
- watch the world go by
- watch this space
- watchtower
- watchword
- water
- water adder
- water agrimony
- water aloe
- water antelope
- water apple
- water archer
- water arum
- water ash