half-hearted
Britishadjective
Other Word Forms
- half-heartedly adverb
- half-heartedness noun
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."
Vocabulary lists containing half-hearted
Idioms and Expressions, List 3
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Eleven
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You Bring the Distant Near
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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.
“You start to wonder how many times they can sell us exactly the same half-hearted commitment,” added Levin, who is now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
From Salon • Nov. 5, 2025
Seeing that one figure treated as a museum piece felt like a half-hearted wave to fans who grew up with Chuck.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 28, 2025
But many observers doubt whether this approach will be any more effective than the months of rallies, faculty blockades and half-hearted general strikes.
From BBC • Jul. 4, 2025
Players-turned-pundits lined up to kick Diallo in the aftermath - "a rabbit in the headlights", "in the wrong movie", "half-hearted".
From BBC • Jan. 23, 2025
By comparison with that existing today, all the tyrannies of the past were half-hearted and inefficient.
From "1984" by George Orwell
Definitions 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.
