disinclination
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of disinclination
First recorded in 1640–50; dis- 1 + inclination
Explanation
If anyone has ever told you to do something you didn’t want to do, you’ve felt a disinclination, a doubt about participating. Having a disinclination means you’re just not into it, so you hesitate. In Herman Melville’s short novel “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” when anyone asks Bartleby for a favor, he always replies, “I would prefer not to.” That’s an example of a disinclination — the feeling that there are other things you’d rather be doing. If someone tells you to eat a lightbulb, you might feel a disinclination to do that, and for good reason. The Latin roots of the word roughly translate to “unable to bend,” which describes your unwilling disinclination quite well.
Vocabulary lists containing disinclination
Novel Study: Lord of the Flies, Chapters 1–4
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George Washington's First Inaugural Address
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Stories of Ourselves
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
With his older brother John, he ran a school, having left a previous teaching post from a disinclination to administer corporal punishment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2026
His posture toward Ukraine weekly demonstrates that disinclination.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
That can produce psychic numbing, the inability or disinclination to feel, which can reach the point of immobilization.
From Salon ● Dec. 27, 2024
With his permanent grimace and disinclination to discuss much of anything beyond play schemes and player development, Saban was almost the antithesis of camera-ready.
From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2024
The surroundings which were to inspire him had, on the contrary, merely provoked a disinclination to do any work whatever.
From The Four Corners of the World by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
