a feeling of diffidence and indecision about doing something
<noun.feeling>
a certain degree of unwillingness
<noun.attribute> a reluctance to commit himself his hesitancy revealed his basic indisposition after some hesitation he agreed
Hesitancy \Hes"i*tan*cy\, n. [L. haesitantia a stammering.] 1. The act of hesitating, or pausing to consider; slowness in deciding; vacillation; also, the manner of one who hesitates.
2. A stammering; a faltering in speech.
But even before yesterday's debacle, we had begun to see an international hesitancy to acquire dollar assets.
"There's a general hesitancy to move along on any projects," agrees Kermit T. Kuck, chairman and chief executive officer of Monarch Machine Tool Co., Sidney, Ohio.
Eban said he hopes Shultz can overcome Shamir's hesitancy.
Despite hesitancy stemming from Black Monday, Christie's sold $37.6 million of impressionist and modern art last night.
The Shanghai government took advantage of this hesitancy to end the blockades after about five days.
He may eventually get this message through to a wider audience. We should, therefore, expect signs of hesitancy about the April 9 election date.
Israel on Tuesday accepted Germany's unification with some hesitancy, tainted by the memory of the slayings of 6 million Jews by the Germans a half-century ago.
Gore ridiculed rival Dukakis, saying the Massachusetts governor's hesitancy to spell out differences with Jackson was "ludicrous."
CHICAG0 (AP) _ Republican presidential nominee George Bush said Sunday he has "no hesitancy" about keeping Dan Quayle as his running mate and declared he's ready to "take the heat" on the controversy over Quayle's military service.
Any hesitancy in April is not forcing it to revise this figure downwards.
Trading was light, however, amid widespread hesitancy to initiate large positions in the futures market, some brokers said.
The stock market overcame some early hesitancy to reach a five-week high Wednesday, responding to better-than-expected news on international trade.
It accused Mr. Major this week of hesitancy on foreign policy issues and particularly the Kurdish refugee crisis.
In the months right after the stock market crash there was "hesitancy in the diamond markets," said De Beers's chairman, Julian Ogilvie Thompson, in the company's latest annual report.
A recent survey by the Heritage Foundation showed 40 of 50 governors strongly support the agreement, with 10 undecided or not responding. Many of those in favour are impatient at President Clinton's hesitancy.
Theoretically, Gorbachev could try to win propaganda points by raising the Senate's ratification delay as an alleged example of U.S. hesitancy to end the arms race, Bugajski said.