1. loath(s = adj.all) loth, reluctant - unwillingness to do something contrary to your custom; "a reluctant smile"; "loath to admit a mistake"
2. loath(s = adj.all) antipathetic, antipathetical, averse, indisposed, loth - (usually followed by `to') strongly opposed; "antipathetic to new ideas"; "averse to taking risks"; "loath to go on such short notice"; "clearly indisposed to grant their request"
1. Hateful; odious; disliked. Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
2. Filled with disgust or aversion; averse; unwilling; reluctant; as, loath to part. [1913 Webster]
"Full loth were him to curse for his tithes." [1913 Webster]
"Why, then, though loath, yet must I be content." [1913 Webster]
loath, predic.adj. (also loth) (usu. foll. by to + infin.) disinclined, reluctant, unwilling (was loath to admit it).
Idiom:
nothing loath adj. quite willing.
Etymology:
OE lath f. Gmc
N unwillingness, indisposition, indisposedness, disinclination, aversation, nolleity, nolition, renitence, renitency, reluctance, indifference, backwardness, slowness, want of alacrity, want of readiness, indocility, scrupulousness, scrupulosity, qualms of conscience, twinge of conscience, delicacy, demur, scruple, qualm, shrinking, recoil, hesitation, fastidiousness, averseness, dissent, refusal, unwilling, not in the vein, loth, loath, shy of, disinclined, indisposed, averse, reluctant, not content, adverse, laggard, backward, remiss, slack, slow to, indifferent, scrupulous, squeamish, repugnant, restiff, restive, demurring, unconsenting, involuntary, unwillingly, grudgingly, with a heavy heart, with a bad, with an ill grace, against one's wishes, against one's will, against the grain, sore against one's wishes, sore against one's will, sore against one's grain, invita Minerva, a contre caeur, malgre soi, in spite of one's teeth, in spite of oneself, nolens volens, perforce, under protest, no, not for the world, far be it from me.