Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a hesitating manner.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb With hesitation or doubt.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a hesitating manner.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb with hesitation; in a hesitant manner

Etymologies

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Examples

  • In the gloom of early evening Chris spoke my name hesitatingly.

    Flowers in the Attic V.C. Andrews 1979

  • In the gloom of early evening Chris spoke my name hesitatingly.

    Flowers in the Attic V.C. Andrews 1979

  • He was a very respectable man who had amassed a decent fortune from the sale of iron bedsteads; yet how could I bring myself to think that this embarrassed-looking, ill-dressed, timid little creature could, with a word hesitatingly uttered, unite me in eternal bonds?

    The French Immortals Series — Complete Various

  • She pronounced his name hesitatingly, half appealingly.

    Ramona 1921

  • Colin '– hesitatingly,' I did think you'd have come and looked after an old friend at the big Show in the Botanical Gardens when the Governor made his State Entry. '

    Lady Bridget in the Never-Never Land 1915

  • "A being akin to yourself," he said in low tones, "only developed, enormously developed; a Master in your own peculiar region, and a man whose influence acting upon you at close quarters could not fail to arouse the latent mind-storms" -- he chose the word hesitatingly, as though seeking for a better he could not find on the moment, -- "always brewing in you just below the horizon."

    The Centaur Algernon Blackwood 1910

  • The opposite wall took up the name hesitatingly and tossed it back.

    Overland Red A Romance of the Moonstone Cañon Trail Henry Herbert Knibbs 1909

  • "Knowing --" he took up the word hesitatingly -- "knowing that life would be insupportable to me if I could not be near you."

    The Damnation of Theron Ware Harold Frederic 1877

  • He was a very respectable man who had amassed a decent fortune from the sale of iron bedsteads; yet how could I bring myself to think that this embarrassed-looking, ill-dressed, timid little creature could, with a word hesitatingly uttered, unite me in eternal bonds?

    Monsieur, Madame, and Bebe — Complete Gustave Droz 1863

  • She pronounced his name hesitatingly, half appealingly.

    Ramona Helen Hunt Jackson 1857

Comments

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  • What's the difference between hesitatingly and hesitantly?

    March 26, 2008

  • The way I see it, moving hesitantly is slowing moving towards a goal. Moving hesitantingly is moving in spurts, each of them hesitant.

    March 26, 2008