Dictionary

untowardly en · ADJ

Etymology

From untoward + -ly.

Meanings

1. Untoward.
   • 1561, Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (1528), translated by Thomas Hoby, London: David Nutt, 1900, Book One, pp. 41-42, To disgrace therefore many untowardly asseheades, that through malepertnes thinke to purchase them the name of a good Courtyer, I would have suche a pastime for this night, that one of the company myght bee picked out who should take in hand to shape in woordes a good Courtyer, specifying all suche condicions and particuler qualities, as of necessitie must be in hym that deserveth this name.
   • They frequently learn from unbred or debauched Servants, such Language, untowardly Tricks and Vices, as otherwise they possibly would be ignorant of all their Lives. 1693, [John Locke], “§68”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC, page 75:
   • 1791, George Washington, Letter to his niece, Harriot Washington, Philadelphia, 20 October, 1791, Your cousins, with whom you live, are well qualified to give you advice; and I am sure they will, if you are disposed to receive it. But, if you are disobliging, self-willed, and untowardly, it is hardly to be expected that they will engage themselves in unpleasant disputes with you […]

Forms

Deriveds

untowardliness

untowardly en · ADV

Etymology

From untoward + -ly.

Meanings

1. In an untoward way.
   • Perhaps that’s because discretion is a restaurateur’s asset—to dish untowardly would be bad for business. 2007 January 14, Sara Dickerman, “Are You Being Served?”, in New York Times:
   • It has been said that Mr. Slope, as he started for Ullathorne, received a dispatch from his friend, Mr. Towers, which had the effect of putting him in that high good-humour which subsequent events somewhat untowardly damped. 1857, Anthony Trollope, “Mr. and Mrs. Quiverful are Made Happy. Mr. Slope is Encouraged by the Press.”, in Barchester Towers. […], copyright edition, volume II, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1859, →OCLC, page 229:
   • O day untowardly turned! 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
   • Those ruddy plumes, embrew′d with heavenly food, / When I would suck them, twine to driest coral; / And when I couch between her lily buds, / They surge like frothy water mounts above all: / Surely, they were all made unto good uses, / But she them all untowardly abuses. 1594, William Percy, Cœlia, Sonnet XII:
   • “[…] I have observed, Mrs. Elton, in the course of my life, that if things are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next.” 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XVIII, in Emma: […], volume II, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC:
   • […] whenever my brains come to be dissected, you will perceive, without spectacles, that he has left a large uneven thread, as you sometimes see in an unsaleable piece of cambrick, running along the whole length of the web, and so untowardly, you cannot so much as cut out a * *, (here I hang up a couple of lights again)—or a fillet, or a thumb-stall, but it is seen or felt. 1762, [Laurence Sterne], chapter XXXIII, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume VI, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […], →OCLC, page 132:

Forms