halfhearted
[haf-hahr-tid, hahf-]
- having or showing little enthusiasm: a halfhearted attempt to work.
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Origin of halfhearted
Synonyms
See more synonyms for halfhearted on Thesaurus.comindifferent, uninterested, cold, cool, perfunctory.
Antonyms
enthusiastic.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for half-hearted
Contemporary Examples
Then there were those songs that were either too half-baked or half-hearted to even fool us into turning them into smash hits.
Your query will be answered with a blank stare, followed by a long pause and half-hearted reply: My accountant?
So, in “The Runaways,” Don engages in a half-hearted ménage-a-trois AND outsmarts his frenemies.
Mad Men’s ‘The Runaways’: Three-Way Sex and Self-Mutilation in the Craziest Episode YetMarlow Stern
May 12, 2014
The early scandal, but really it was a blip of gossip with half-hearted twangs, was that Sonja had a younger beau.
Betrayal, Blowjobs, and Bitchery: the 'Real Housewives' Get Really DesperateTim Teeman
March 12, 2014
The crowd on the floor responded with a half-hearted murmur of assent.
Historical Examples
At the same time, what's the world for, if you're to meet it in that half-hearted way?
Wilfrid CumbermedeGeorge MacDonald
Old friends were gone from him; new friends were but half-hearted.
But this being so, and you but half-hearted, I tell you, it is too dangerous a game to play for groats.
The Wild GeeseStanley John Weyman
Had he stopped there her belief would have only been half-hearted.
Kept in the DarkAnthony Trollope
I had never known him handle a case in such a half-hearted fashion.
The Return of Sherlock HolmesArthur Conan Doyle
half-hearted
- without enthusiasm or determination
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for half-hearted
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper