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UNLUCKY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Marked by or promising bad fortune
Example:
the unlucky prisoner was again put in irons
Synonyms:
doomed; ill-fated; ill-omened; ill-starred; unlucky
Classified under:
Similar:
unfortunate (not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Having or bringing misfortune
Example:
Friday the 13th is an unlucky date
Synonyms:
luckless; unlucky
Classified under:
Similar:
hexed; jinxed ((usually used colloquially) causing or accompanied by misfortune)
Also:
unfortunate (not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune)
Antonym:
lucky (having or bringing good fortune)
Context examples:
I had been long afraid of this resolution, and therefore concealed from her some little unlucky adventures, that happened in those times when I was left by myself.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
He restrained himself however, and the little squall would have blown over, but for one unlucky word.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
How unlucky that is!
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Sir Walter had once been in company with the late viscount, but had never seen any of the rest of the family; and the difficulties of the case arose from there having been a suspension of all intercourse by letters of ceremony, ever since the death of that said late viscount, when, in consequence of a dangerous illness of Sir Walter's at the same time, there had been an unlucky omission at Kellynch.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
When I was as old as you, I was a feeling fellow enough, partial to the unfledged, unfostered, and unlucky; but Fortune has knocked me about since: she has even kneaded me with her knuckles, and now I flatter myself I am hard and tough as an India-rubber ball; pervious, though, through a chink or two still, and with one sentient point in the middle of the lump.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
“To be sure, my dear mother, your anxiety—I was unlucky there.”
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
It is unlucky, said she, after a short pause, that you should not be able to see your friends before they leave the country.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
In this condition, he felt more incapable of finishing the Memorial than ever; and the harder he worked at it, the oftener that unlucky head of King Charles the First got into it.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Ah! unlucky wretch that I am! sighed she; would that I had married King Grisly-beard!
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
A circumstance rather unlucky occurred.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
