What does loath mean?
Loath is an adjective chiefly meaning unwilling or reluctant, especially in the phrase loath to do something. It conveys more emotional weight than reluctant alone, often suggesting a strong dislike, distaste, or reluctance to act. For example, someone may be loath to criticize a colleague, to admit a mistake, or to part with a possession. In older and more literary contexts, loath can also mean hateful or detestable, though this sense is much less common today. The word is used in both British and American English and survives most often in fixed expressions rather than in everyday neutral descriptions. It is related to the verb loathe, but the two have different grammatical roles: loath describes a feeling or attitude, while loathe describes the act of detesting something.
Unwilling or reluctant to do something; loath to.
"He was loath to accept help from strangers."
Most often used in the construction loath to plus an infinitive. The sense can suggest moral hesitation, emotional reluctance, or a strong personal aversion.
Hateful or detestable.
"The poem speaks of the loath creatures that haunt the island."
This is an archaic or literary sense, now uncommon in ordinary modern usage.
The word loath carries a distinctly old-fashioned dignity: it sounds less like simple hesitation and more like a principled refusal.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does loath come from?
The word descends from Old English lāþ, meaning hateful or hostile, and later came to mean reluctant or unwilling. Its modern form reflects a long development in which the original sense of strong dislike was softened into reluctance. It is related to the Old English verb lāþian, meaning to hate or detest, which developed into modern loathe. The word belongs to the Germanic family and has parallels in forms such as Old Norse laðr, meaning hateful or unpleasant, and Old Frisian lāth, meaning hateful.
Related word forms
How loath is actually used
In modern usage, loath is most often found in the expression loath to, followed by an infinitive. Its older sense of hateful is now literary or archaic and is easily confused with the verb loathe.
Easily confused with loath
Loath is an adjective meaning unwilling or hateful, whereas loathe is a verb meaning to detest intensely.