hesitantly

adv

1. With hesitation.

   “The sounds from Barb's clarinet began to take the shape of a melody, played quietly at first, hesitantly, with a misblown note here and there.”

   “It approaches irrefusably, hesitantly, terrible as fate, the great task and question: how shall the earth as a whole be managed? (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1885)”

   “Grigory hesitantly took her in his arms to kiss her, but she held him off, bent supply backwards and shot a frightened glance at the windows. 'They'll see!' 'Let them!' 'I'd be ashamed—'”

   “A woman asked, hesitantly: “Is he the one who … self-immolated?””

   “The teenager stared down the barrel of Petr's gun for a few seconds, then asked hesitantly, “What kind of questions?” “Something's going on,” Petr began. The pimply deadlingshrugged. “This is Brno, there's always something going on.””

2. With reluctance.