Dictionary

underassertively en · ADV

Etymology

From underassertive + -ly.

Meanings

1. In an underassertive manner.
   • Some of the most difficult situations for underassertive people involve requests and compliments: — making a request — refusing a request — giving a compliment — accepting a compliment. People who act underassertively may have difficulty asking others for what they want, 1984, William N. Tindall, Robert S. Beardsley, Frederic R. Curtiss, Communication in pharmacy practice:
   • The assertiveness training sessions involved role-playing in a given situation in three ways, viz., underassertively (passively), overassertively (aggressively), and assertively. 2014, Dr. Jane Akponye, Children of Divorced Parents, →ISBN:
   • Rather, like the medical institutions, and like many American parents around him, he was cautiously — "underassertively," he often says — feeling his way toward alternatives to the old-fashioned techniques. 1996, The New Yorker - Volume 72, page 84:

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