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.
His posture toward Ukraine weekly demonstrates that disinclination.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
Cui said that disinclination is partly because high existing household savings would necessitate a cash infusion of hundreds of billions of dollars to make a notable impact.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2024
Inconsistent as "Picard" could be, it handles its hero's disillusionment with Starfleet's disinclination to take responsibility for massive moral failings, and his own, quite capably.
From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2023
That strict sense of propriety, as well as a disinclination to privilege the individual above the collective, that made him reluctant to discuss his intimate habits and feelings.
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2022
There is a disposition to sit apart and brood by the hour, and a well-marked tendency to avoid friends and even members of the family, with an utter disinclination to meet strangers.
From Essays In Pastoral Medicine by Austin ?Malley
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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.
