velleitary

velleitary

English

Etymology

Derived from velleity.

Adjective

velleitary (comparative more velleitary, superlative most velleitary)

1. Slow in taking action; lacking resolve.
   • 1668, Robert Brown, Jerubbaal, Or, A Vindication of The Sober Testimony Against Sinful Complyance:

     The Preface of the S.T. being vindicated from the exceptions of Mr. T. wherein his skirmiſhings have been manifeſted to be velitary, and weak indeed.

   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, Olympia Press:

     And these kisses, […] it was Mrs. Gorman's invariable habit to catch up, as it were, upon her own lips, and return, with tranquil civility, as one picks up a glove, or newspaper, let fall in some public place, and restores it with a smile, if not a bow, to its rightful proprietor. So that each kiss was in reality two kisses, first Watt's kiss, velleitary, anxious, and then Mrs. Gorman's, unctious and urbane.

   • 1999, Ross Chambers, Loiterature:

     The women, who are frequently, if not universally, complicitous with Mona, are also shown to be velleitary and unwilling to break with convention as she has done: "I'd have liked to be free," says one, dreamily; and another: "When you're married, you're caught for life".