Dictionary

unsparing en · ADJ

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 sparing English unsparing From un- + sparing.

Meanings

1. Without sparing; liberal; profuse; thorough.
   • Only when one has seen a Control Office at first-hand does one realise the vast amount of unsparing but largely unsung work that is behind the eventual publication, perhaps, of a paragraph in this journal's "Motive Power Miscellany" recording the appearance, within hours of the complete blockage of a main line, of many of its trains, passenger and freight, on routes quite foreign to them; and of effective emergency services either side of the disaster area. 1962 August, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 133:
2. Pulling no punches; brutal as opposed to politic.
   • [Giovanni's Room] is clearly written out of interior torment, and is an unsparing account of a man fighting against himself. It is certainly not a pleasant book, and David, the narrator, is not "nice" […] but even in its negative ending, it makes a strong statement in favor of self knowledge and accepting one's sexuality. 1980 February 9, Andrea Loewenstein, “James Baldwin and His Critics”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 28, page 10:

Forms

Deriveds

unsparingness · unsparingly

Translations (1)

mi tōtōpū (thorough)