irresolute

American  

[ih-rez-uh-loot] / ɪˈrɛz əˌlut /

adjective

1. not resolute; doubtful; infirm of purpose; vacillating.

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irresolute British  

/ ɪˈrɛzəˌluːt /

adjective

1. lacking resolution; wavering; hesitating

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Other Word Forms

• irresolutely adverb
• irresoluteness noun

Etymology

Origin of irresolute

First recorded in 1565–75; ir- ² + resolute

Explanation

Irresolute describes someone who feels stuck. A decision must be made, a plan acted on, but the irresolute person just doesn't know what to do. Resolute describes certainty. When someone is resolute, things get done: plans are made and carried out. But add the prefix ir to resolute and you get its opposite. An irresolute person isn't necessarily a slacker — he or she just doesn't know what to do. Maybe it's confusion. Maybe it's a matter of waiting for better information to come along. Either way, if someone is irresolute, you'll need to be patient — or willing to nudge him or her into action.

Example Sentences

But in hindsight some historians say the Shah was too weak, slow and irresolute in repression.

From Reuters • Oct. 6, 2022

That phrase is a call back to the ancestors and an acknowledgment that you were not raised to be fearful and irresolute.

From Washington Post • Oct. 18, 2021

People seeking a summer action thriller in The Green Knight will be puzzled and perhaps annoyed by this irresolute final shot.

From Slate • Jul. 29, 2021

In one of these stories told over dinner, a man identifies another hard-wired human impulse: "the desire to resolve the irresolute, to conclude the incomplete, to have the crooked made straight."

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 23, 2018

Eventually someone very ugly or very unhappy would spot a new kid walking around and in tentative, irresolute gestures would offer friendship to you with no ulterior motives except to end their own intolerable loneliness.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy