having mixed feelings about someone or something; being unable to choose between two (usually opposing) courses of action: The whole family was ambivalent about the move to the suburbs.She is regarded as a morally ambivalent character in the play.
Psychology. of or relating to the coexistence within an individual of positive and negative feelings toward the same person, object, or action, simultaneously drawing him or her in opposite directions.
In other words, without any open-brain surgery and just a few light beams, the team was able to change a socially ambivalent mouse into a friendship-craving social butterfly.
Scientists Found a New Way to Control the Brain With Light—No Surgery Required|Shelly Fan|October 13, 2020|Singularity Hub
Sometimes she sees clients who are ambivalent about their kink identities.
Coming Out Kinky to Your Doctor, in Black and Blue|Heather Boerner|October 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST
True to form, Palmer is ambivalent about Weaver, with whom he does commercials and TV commentary.
Will the Real Jim Palmer Please Stand Up|Tom Boswell|September 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
On some level, Brecht meant for Mother Courage to be an ambivalent figure—he called her “a great living contradiction.”
Many people are ambivalent about it, including many ardent pro-choice activists.
Ten Reasons Women Are Losing While Gays Keep Winning|Jay Michaelson|July 6, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Korda argues convincingly that Lee was ambivalent about slavery.
How I Learned to Hate Robert E. Lee|Christopher Dickey|June 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Let us suppose the subject has ambivalent feelings toward his father.
A Practical Guide to Self-Hypnosis|Melvin Powers
Thus we find again that taboo has grown out of the soil of an ambivalent emotional attitude.
Totem and Taboo|Sigmund Freud
Let us recall that in our earlier discussion we took note of the ambivalent character of love.
Herein is Love|Reuel L. Howe
With the decline of this ambivalence the taboo, as the compromise symptom of the ambivalent conflict, also slowly disappeared.
Totem and Taboo|Sigmund Freud
Content related to ambivalent
“Ambiguous” vs. “Ambivalent”Ambiguous and ambivalent share the Latin prefix ambi-, which means "both," so it is easy to see how they can be mixed up. However, the duality pertains to very different things.