| Library / English Dictionary |
UNDUE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Not yet payable
Example:
an undue loan
Classified under:
Antonym:
due (owed and payable immediately or on demand)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Not appropriate or proper (or even legal) in the circumstances
Example:
accused of using undue force
Classified under:
Domain category:
jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)
Antonym:
due (suitable to or expected in the circumstances)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Beyond normal limits
Example:
unreasonable demands
Synonyms:
excessive; inordinate; undue; unreasonable
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
immoderate (beyond reasonable limits)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Lacking justification or authorization
Example:
unwarranted limitations of personal freedom
Synonyms:
undue; unjustified; unwarranted
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
unreasonable (not reasonable; not showing good judgment)
Context examples:
Powerfully muscled though some of them were, there had been something wrong with all of them, an insufficient development here, an undue development there, a twist or a crook that destroyed symmetry, legs too short or too long, or too much sinew or bone exposed, or too little.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
She had obviously not heard anything to her advantage: and it seemed to me, from her prolonged fit of gloom and taciturnity, that she herself, notwithstanding her professed indifference, attached undue importance to whatever revelations had been made her.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
It crushed them into the remotest recesses of their own minds, pressing out of them, like juices from the grape, all the false ardours and exaltations and undue self-values of the human soul, until they perceived themselves finite and small, specks and motes, moving with weak cunning and little wisdom amidst the play and inter-play of the great blind elements and forces.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
Too often she betrayed this, by the undue vent she gave to a spiteful antipathy she had conceived against little Adele: pushing her away with some contumelious epithet if she happened to approach her; sometimes ordering her from the room, and always treating her with coldness and acrimony.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
