Dictionary

unkind en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ʌnˈkaɪnd/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
• audio -
• (General-American) audio

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English unkynde; equivalent to un- + kind.

Meanings

1. Lacking kindness, sympathy, benevolence, gratitude, or similar; cruel, harsh or unjust; ungrateful.
   • Nobody meant to be unkind, but nobody put themselves out of their way to secure her comfort. 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter II, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 24:
   • As a kid, I suffered the slings and arrows that most of us with such foreign names grow up with. I was called Pollock, Pockrock and worse. One unkind kid on the playground, perhaps sensing some need for attention, labeled me Peacock. 2014 August 20, Mark Potok, “What’s in a Name?”, in Southern Poverty Law Center:
   • Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him! This was the most unkindest cut of all; For when the noble Caesar saw him stab, Ingratitude, more strong than traitors’ arms, Quite vanquish’d him: then burst his mighty heart; 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
   • Before the day I met you, life was so unkind / But you're the key to my peace of mind 1967, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, performed by Aretha Franklin:
   • We had to learn that to refuse such gifts, which represented serious sacrifice, was more unkind than to accept them. 1974, Laurence William Wylie, Village in the Vaucluse, 3rd edition, page 175:
   • Despite the bursitis, Dewey got in a good round of golf, though his cautious game inspired a reporter to make one of the week′s unkindest remarks: “He plays golf like he plays politics — straight down the middle, and short.” 1950 July 3, “Politicians Without Politics”, in Life, page 16:
   • Yet was it ne’er my Fate, from thee to find A Deed ungentle, or a Word unkind: When others curst the Auth’ress of their Woe, Thy Pity check’d my Sorrows in their Flow: 1720, Homer, “Book XXIV”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, volume VI, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 189, lines 968–971:
   • In the strictness with which he holds this view he belongs in the company of the novelists I have cited, except that he is unkinder and less charitable than they are. 2000, Edward W. Said, “On Lost Causes”, in Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, page 540:
2. (obsolete) Not kind; contrary to nature or type; unnatural.
   • […] A Feauer is an vnkinde heate, that commeth out of the heart, and passeth into all the members of the bodye, and grieueth the working of the bodye. 1582, Stephen Batman, transl., Batman vppon Bartholome His Booke De Proprietatibus Rerum, London, Book 7, Chapter 33:
   • Crowes will not feed their yong til 9. daies old, Because their vnkind colour makes them doubt Them to be theirs; 1617, John Davies, Wits Bedlam, London, Epigram 116:
3. (obsolete) Having no race or kindred; childless.
   • O, had thy mother borne so hard a mind, She had not brought forth thee, but died unkind. 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC:

Forms

Deriveds

unkindest cut

Relateds

unkindly · unkindness

Translations (1)

enm unkynde (cruel — see also cruel, harsh)