half-hearted

British  

adjective

1. without enthusiasm or determination

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Other Word Forms

• half-heartedness
  noun
• half-heartedly
  adverb

Explanation

Use the adjective half-hearted to describe someone whose heart is not really in what they are doing. If you're a half-hearted member of your school marching band, you're not very excited about playing your tuba during halftime at football games. You might show up for awkward family dinners with your strange cousins, but you don't look forward to it and you can't wait until it's over. You're a half-hearted participant, and when your weird relatives leave, you probably give a half-hearted wave goodbye. The word can also be spelled "halfhearted."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

half-hearted

There’s Mrs. Duggan’s sitting room, for example, with its “faint, high whistling of the gas fire”; and “the weary clatter of half-hearted washing-up” in a depressing cafe.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

And these memos lay bare the extent to which the work product underpinning these decisions is often half-hearted and vibes-based; animated more by grievance and hurt feelings than neutral legal rules.

From Slate ● Apr. 21, 2026

And earlier this month United defender Noussair Mazraoui was recorded comically scribbling half-hearted signatures on a set of shirts given to him by a hunter who approached him at his car window after training.

From BBC ● Mar. 23, 2026

A draft version of the report circulated among stakeholders in late October included a half-hearted endorsement of a change to the state building code.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2026

The promenade wasn’t much to look at, a wide, crumbling paved area, dotted with litter, evidence of the island’s half-hearted attempts to attract tourists.

From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers