| Library / English Dictionary |
UNKIND
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Deficient in humane and kindly feelings
Synonyms:
pitiless; unkind
Classified under:
Similar:
inhumane (lacking and reflecting lack of pity or compassion)
Derivation:
unkindness (lack of sympathy)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Lacking kindness
Example:
the unkindest cut of all
Classified under:
Similar:
cutting; edged; stinging ((of speech) harsh or hurtful in tone or character)
harsh; rough (unkind or cruel or uncivil)
hurtful (causing hurt)
unkindly; unsympathetic (lacking in sympathy and kindness)
Also:
malign (evil or harmful in nature or influence)
merciless; unmerciful (having or showing no mercy)
Attribute:
kindness (the quality of being warmhearted and considerate and humane and sympathetic)
Antonym:
kind (having or showing a tender and considerate and helpful nature; used especially of persons and their behavior)
Derivation:
unkindness (lack of sympathy)
Context examples:
This was the first serious disagreement, her own hasty speeches sounded both silly and unkind, as she recalled them, her own anger looked childish now, and thoughts of poor John coming home to such a scene quite melted her heart.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
She has been unkind to you, no doubt; because you see, she dislikes your cast of character, as Miss Scatcherd does mine; but how minutely you remember all she has done and said to you!
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I know that you all love her really too well to be unjust or unkind; but excuse me, Mr. Knightley, if I take the liberty (I consider myself, you know, as having somewhat of the privilege of speech that Emma's mother might have had) the liberty of hinting that I do not think any possible good can arise from Harriet Smith's intimacy being made a matter of much discussion among you.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Heaven knows, I cannot find it in my heart to blame you, but this much I will say, be it kind or unkind: when Captain Smollett was well, you dared not have gone off; and when he was ill and couldn't help it, by George, it was downright cowardly!
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Catherine thought this reproach equally strange and unkind.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
It was quite unkind of you not to come on Thursday.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
“Then who is ungentle and unkind now?” she cried in triumph.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He was anxious, while vindicating himself, to say nothing unkind of the others: but there was only one amongst them whose conduct he could mention without some necessity of defence or palliation.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Her income was not her own, she said, with such perpetual claims on it; and it was the more unkind in my father, because, otherwise, the money would have been entirely at my mother's disposal, without any restriction whatever.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
What else was it possible to infer from what you said, you unkind creature, when you know as well as I do, that on his account only last quarter I wouldn't buy myself a new parasol, though that old green one is frayed the whole way up, and the fringe is perfectly mangy?
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
