• (RP) IPA: /ləʊθ/
• (GA) IPA: /loʊθ/

loath (comparative loather, superlative loathest)

1. Averse, disinclined; reluctant, unwilling.

   I was loath to return to the office without the Henderson file.

   • a. 1472, Thomas Malory, “Capitulum Quintum”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book IV, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, OCLC 71490786 ↗, leaf 62, verso; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034 ↗, lines 10–13, page 124 ↗:

     I durſt ſaye that of his age ther is not in this land a better knyghte than he is nor of better condycions and lothe to doo ony wronge / and loth to take ony wronge

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

   • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: Printed for Nath[aniel] Ponder […], OCLC 228725984 ↗; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, OCLC 5190338 ↗, page 166 ↗:

     Then ſaid Faint-heart, Deliver thy Purſe; but he making no haſte to do it (for he was loth to loſe his Money,) Miſtrust ran up to him, and thruſting his hand into his Pocket, pull'd out thence a bag of Silver.

   • 1822, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Peveril of the Peak. [...] In Four Volumes, volume III, Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., OCLC 2392685 ↗, page 82 ↗:

     "And thereupon I pledge thee," said the young nobleman, "which on any other argument I were loth to do—thinking of Ned as somewhat the cut of a villain."

   • 1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Alas, So Long!”, in Ballads and Sonnets, London: Ellis and White, […], OCLC 946729536 ↗, stanza 2, lines 9–13, pages 297–298 ↗:

     Ah! dear one, I've been old so long, / It seems that age is loth to part, / Though days and years have never a song, / And, oh! have they still the art / That warmed the pulses of heart to heart?

   • 1911 October, Jack London, “The Whale Tooth”, in South Sea Tales, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, OCLC 5376703 ↗, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/fk13n20g7k;view=1up;seq=69 page 61]:

     The frizzle-headed man-eaters were loath to leave their fleshpots so long as the harvest of human carcases was plentiful. Sometimes, when the harvest was too plentiful, they imposed on the missionaries by letting the word slip out that on such a day there would be a killing and a barbecue.

2. (obsolete) Angry, hostile#Noun|hostile.
3. (obsolete) Loathsome, unpleasant.

• loathe
• loather
• loathe-worthy
• loathing (noun)

• French: hésitant, réticent
• German: abgeneigt
• Italian: restio, riluttante, ritroso
• Russian: неохотный
• Spanish: poco dispuesto

loath (loaths, present participle loathing; past and past participle loathed)

1. Obsolete spelling of loathe#English|loathe
   • 1576, George Whetstone, “The Castle of Delight: […]”, in The Rocke of Regard, Diuided into Foure Parts. [...], Imprinted at London: [By H. Middleton] for Robert Waley, OCLC 837515946 ↗; republished in J[ohn] P[ayne] Collier, editor, The Rocke of Regard, Diuided into Foure Parts. [...] (Illustrations of Early English Poetry; vol. 2, no. 2), London: Privately printed, [1867?], OCLC 706027473 ↗, page 20 ↗:

     To Scriptures read they muſt their leisure#English|leaſure frame, / Then loath they will both luſt and wanton love; {{...}