Dictionary

ungenteel en · ADJ

Etymology

From un- + genteel.

Meanings

1. Not genteel; coarse and ill-mannered.
   • “Well, it would serve to cure him of an absurd practice of never asking a question at an inn, which he had adopted, when quite a young man, on the principal of its being very ungenteel to be curious. […]” 1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=III or IV), London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC:
   • He was a jolly, handsome fellow, as any woman need wish for a companion; tall and well made; rather a little too large, but not so as to be ungenteel; he danced well, which I think was the first thing that brought us together. 1724, Daniel Defoe, Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress:
   • The paint on the walls was cracked and peeling. It had an air of ungenteel decay. 1958, A.G. Yates, The Cold Dark Hours, Sydney: Horwitz, published 1963, page 135:
   • But we are not going to leave these two people long in such a low and ungenteel station of life. Better days, as far as worldly prosperity went, were in store for both. 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 57, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
   • 1845, Charles Dickens, The Cricket on the Hearth, Chirp the Second, If I might be allowed to mention a young lady’s legs on any terms, I would observe of Miss Slowboy’s that there was a fatality about them which rendered them singularly liable to be grazed; and that she never effected the smallest ascent or descent without recording the circumstance upon them with a notch, as Robinson Crusoe marked the days upon his wooden calendar. But, as this might be considered ungenteel, I’ll think of it.

Forms

Deriveds

ungenteelly · ungenteelness

Translations (4)

gd mì-eireachdail (not genteel) · gd mì-cheanalta (not genteel) · gd mì-innealta (not genteel) · gd mì-uasal (not genteel)