half-instinctive

A tear stood in the eye of the rough Thane as he spoke — a mark of feeling which even the death of Athelstane had not extracted; but there was something in the half-instinctive attachment of his clown, that waked his nature more keenly than even grief itself.

Ivanhoe 2004

He tended _Don Juan_ with the half-instinctive love and understanding absorbed with his rammer training.

A World Out of Time Niven, Larry 1976

The Pomeranian peasant may submit to military dictation in a dull, half-instinctive fashion.

New York Times, Current History, Vol 1, Issue 1 From the Beginning to March, 1915 With Index Various

As Myrtle said these words, she lifted the sleeve a little on her left arm, by a half-instinctive and half-voluntary movement.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 117, July, 1867. Various

In primitive and half-instinctive belief the self is recognized in practical relations.

The Approach to Philosophy Ralph Barton Perry 1916

Yet she was conscious of a strength that did battle with her half-instinctive aversion -- a strength that might have compelled, but preferred to attract.

The Swindler and Other Stories 1910

There is a vein of human kindness in the Scot, and he is often endowed with a keen, half-instinctive judgment of his fellows which renders him less likely to be impressed by outward appearances and the accidental advantages of polished speech or tasteful dress than his southern neighbors.

Vane of the Timberlands Harold Bindloss 1905

The inchoate and the obsolescent, the indistinctness of immaturity, the incipient disintegration of decay, the deepening shadow of oblivion, the half-instinctive and organic bond of custom, whatever stirs the blood but excites only blurred images in the brain, and steals into character without passing through the gates of passion or of thought, finds imperfect or capricious reflection in his verse.

Robert Browning Herford, C H 1905

Yet she hesitated, with a half-instinctive recognition of the fact that the decision she must make was an eventful one.

Vane of the Timberlands Harold Bindloss 1905

A tear stood in the eye of the rough Thane as he spoke --- a mark of feeling which even the death of Athelstane had not extracted; but there was something in the half-instinctive attachment of his clown, that waked his nature more keenly than even grief itself.

Ivanhoe 1892