Is this your crossword clue?
"reluctant" is also used as a crossword clue. If that's what you saw, the answer is often grudging (8 letters).
Definitions
Unwilling or not eager to do something.
Word origin
Learned borrowing from Latin reluctāns (whence -ant), present participle of reluctor (“to struggle against, oppose, resist”), from re- (“back”) + luctor (“to struggle”) (whence re-.
Used in a sentence
“She was reluctant to lend him the money”
“Surprisingly, our new dog is a reluctant ball-retriever.”
“They are reluctant to the inclusion of a necessity test, especially of a horizontal nature, and emphasize, instead, the importance of procedural disciplines [...].”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Not eager”9 letters
Not quite right?
"Search similar patterns."
R________