Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use hesitant in a sentence

22 example sentences · adjective

Hesitant means tending to hesitate, wait, or proceed with caution or reservation. Example: “I am hesitant to recommend him as a manager because he has a short temper.”

Examples of hesitant by meaning

adjectiveTending to hesitate, wait, or proceed with caution or reservation.

  • I am hesitant to recommend him as a manager because he has a short temper.

More sentences with hesitant

  • She was hesitant to remove her shoes, as her socks were rather smelly.From the entry smelly
  • Even though she had succeeded in the phone interview, when the ageist employer learned that the candidate was only 18 years old, she became hesitant.From the entry ageist
  • Donor fatigue is when donors become hesitant to continue giving to charities they typically donate to.2019 February 4, Taylor Waldon, “The Truth About Donor Fatigue and How to Avoid It”, in GiveWP. From the entry donor fatigue
  • Tomás O'Leary had a torrid time behind the forwards, fumbling on the floor, hesitant with his kicks.2010 January 24, Eddie Butler, “"Rugby must beware leaping from the lenient to draconian over gouging"”, in The Guardian. From the entry torrid
  • Page felt hesitant to publish – finally went off "like wet firecrackers."1982, Amerikastudien - Volume 27, page 228. From the entry dynamitic
  • Don't be hesitant to fire a client - cull out the deadwood.1979, Richard Collins Rea, Operating a Successful Accounting Practice: A Collection of Material from the Journal of Accountancy…. From the entry fire
  • He froze a moment there, keystrip already against the contact plate, hesitant to go on.1975, Anthony Boucher, J. Francis McComas, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, page 117. From the entry keystrip
  • I was hesitant about biting a piece of paper.2022 August 24, Darkfalli, “Wellness Check - Chapter 13: Sinking Theseus's Ship”, in Archive Of Our Own, archived from the original on 24…. From the entry texture
  • So, quite understandably, many people are more hesitant than they need be about pressing their case for more money.2014 September 27, Jeremy Bullmore, The Guardian. From the entry press one's case
  • A lot of females were hesitant about getting with Pimp.2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 58. From the entry peep
  • “Well,” he begins in a hesitant, wanting-to-be-diplomatic tone, “yeah.2006 April 11, Shannon Drake, “Ain’t Goin’ Away Ever”, in The Escapist, archived from the original on 20 Oct 2021. From the entry massively multiplayer
  • One of the others raised a hesitant false alarm.1980, Stephen King, The Mist, Viking Press. From the entry jumpiness
  • The morning of the wedding he bounded up my stair, most tremendously shaved and brushed, stood upon my doormat bashfully hesitant.1944, Emily Carr, “Bachelors”, in The House of All Sorts. From the entry bashfully
  • Even among the very hesitant if the cost of vaccine denial is understood in human terms, uptake has been shown to be increased.2019 March 30, Orla Muldoon, “Vaccine denial will not be solved by punishing parents”, in The Irish Times. From the entry vaxxer
  • I take a hesitant whiff and detect no putrid odor of rotting flesh, no oozing, fetid cow juice—just the full-bodied aroma of well-aged meat.2010 February 10, Nadia Arumugam, “Ignore Expiration Dates”, in Slate, archived from the original on 28 Mar 2019. From the entry cow juice
  • He pauses, as if hesitant to mention the godhead of computer design aloud, and adds, "Maybe even something Apple would be interested in."2007 June, Gregory Mone, “Invention: A New Breed of Mouse”, in Popular Science, volume 270, number 6, archived from the original on 17 Dec…. From the entry godhead
  • One reason many educators are hesitant to preassess is because they feel they can't lose those few minutes of instruction time to preassessment.2007, Julia Link Roberts, Tracy Ford Inman, Strategies for Differentiating Instruction, →ISBN. From the entry preassess
  • In fact, many judges prefer to give people their day in court - and then are hesitant to alter or wipe out a jury decision.1999 June 16, Warren Richey, “Billion-dollar verdicts revive fairness debate”, in The Christian Science Monitor. From the entry meritless
  • The monitored heart-rate on a small screen, like a hesitant green version of the telly tennis he'd played in pubs or railway stations.1976, Elaine Feinstein, The ecstasy of Dr Miriam Garner, page 101. From the entry telly tennis
  • He made a few hesitant steps and stopped in front of the Radley gate; then he tried to turn around, but was having difficulty.1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC. From the entry side street
  • Part of the strategy is to dramatically increase the number of electric cars but people in rural areas are proving hesitant because of cost and lack of charging points.2022 July 29, Rory Carroll, quoting Derek Desmond, “Fare deal: Ireland joins Europe-wide efforts to coax people out of cars”, in The…. From the entry banjaxed

Meaning of hesitant

  1. adjective Tending to hesitate, wait, or proceed with caution or reservation.

Full definition of hesitant

Questions about hesitant in a sentence

How do you use hesitant in a sentence?
Hesitant is used as an adjective. For example: “I am hesitant to recommend him as a manager because he has a short temper.”
What is a short sentence with hesitant?
“I was hesitant about biting a piece of paper.”
What does hesitant mean?
Hesitant means tending to hesitate, wait, or proceed with caution or reservation.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hesitant (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use hesitant in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/hesitant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.