ingrate en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- /ˈɪnɡɹeɪt/
Etymology
First attested in 1393, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English ingrat, from Latin ingrātus (“disagreeable”), from in- (“not”) + grātus (“pleasing”). Cognate with French ingrat.
Meanings
-
(obsolete, poetic) Ungrateful.
Yet in his mind malitious and ingrate
1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:Many of theſe might ſeem ingrate and unkind children, that vvill no better acknovvledge and recogniſe their parents in vvords and outvvard pretence, but abrenounce and caſt them off, as though they hated them as dogs and ſerpents.
1536 June 15 (Gregorian calendar), Hugh Latimer, “Sermon II. Master Latimer’s Discourse on the Same Day in the Afternoon [Preached to the Convocation of the Clergy, before the Parliament Began, the Sixth Day of June, the Twenty Eighth Year of the Reign of the Late King Henry VIII].”, in The Sermons of the Right Reverend Father in God, Master Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester. […], volume I, London: […] J. Scott, […], published 1758, →OCLC, page 24:thou art among the stars / of highest Heaven: to the rolling spheres / Thou sweetly singest: naught thy hymning mars, / Above the ingrate world and human fears.
c. 1820, John Keats, Sonnet to Chatterton; published 1901 in The Poetical Works of John Keats in "The World's Classics", reprinted (New edition) 1927, London: Oxford University Press, p. 261Who, for ſo many benefits receiv'd, / Turn'd recreant to God, ingrate and falſe, / And ſo of all true good himſelf deſpoil'd, […]
1671, John Milton, “The Third Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 61:But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer / As high in the air as this unthankful king, / As this ingrate and canker'd Bolingbroke.
c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):The causes of that which is pleasing , or ingrate to the hearing , may receive light by that which is pleasing or ingrate to the sight
1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
- (obsolete) Unfriendly; unpleasant.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more ingrate | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most ingrate | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |