unsafe en · ADJ · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /ʌnˈseɪf/
- (Southern-England) audio
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English safe English unsafe From un- (not) + safe.
Meanings
-
Not safe (various senses); dangerous.
"RMT has made it clear that our members have a right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions, and the union will be closely monitoring the situation. [...]"
2020 May 20, Richard Clinnick, “Network News: More trains... but advice is not to use public transport”, in Rail, pages 7–8:For much the same reasons that safe languages are preferred over unsafe languages, these powerful---but unsafe---capabilities in Java should be restricted.
2015 October, Luis Mastrangelo et al., “Use at your own risk: the Java unsafe API in the wild”, in ACM SIGPLAN Notices, volume 50, number 10, →DOI:Even as FDA works to develop that plan, consumers continue to be exposed to unsafe food chemicals including not just dyes but also the artificial sweetener aspartame, the white pigment titanium dioxide, the preservative propylparaben, and the phthalate food packaging chemicals, according to CSPI.
2025 January 15, “FDA moves to eliminate carcinogenic Red 3 from foods”, in Center for Science in the Public Interest, archived from the original on 10 Nov 2025:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| unsafest | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| more unsafe | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most unsafe | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| unsafer | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic |
Deriveds
memory-unsafe · unsafe sex · unsafely · unsafeness
Synonyms
unstable (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over) · precarious (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over) · unsteady (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over) · tottering (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over) · wobbly (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over) · shaky (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over) · rickety (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over)
Translations (21)
bg несигурен (not safe) · mi haumarukore (not safe) · nb usikker (not safe) · fi vaarallinen (not safe) · ca insegur (not safe) · la intūtus (not safe) · nl onveilig (not safe) · fi turvaton (not safe) · pt inseguro (not safe) · sh opasan (not safe) · bg опасен (not safe) · da usikker (not safe) · nn usikker (not safe) · es inseguro (not safe) · de unsicher (not safe) · pl niebezpieczny (not safe) · fr dangereux (not safe) · it insicura (not safe) · ru опасный (not safe) · cs nebezpečný (not safe) · ro nesigur (not safe)