unkind

English

Etymology

From Middle English unkind; equivalent to un- +‎ kind.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʌnˈkaɪnd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪnd

Adjective

unkind (comparative unkinder or more unkind, superlative unkindest or most unkind)

1. Lacking kindness, sympathy, benevolence, gratitude, or similar; cruel, harsh or unjust; ungrateful. [from mid-14th c.]
   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!
     This was the most unkindest cut of all;
     For when the noble Caesar saw him stab,
     Ingratitude, more strong than traitors’ arms,
     Quite vanquish’d him: then burst his mighty heart;

   • 1715–1720, Homer, [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book 24”, in The Iliad of Homer, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 189, lines 968-971:

     Yet was it ne’er my Fate, from thee to find
     A Deed ungentle, or a Word unkind:
     When others curst the Auth’ress of their Woe,
     Thy Pity check’d my Sorrows in their Flow:

   • 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter II, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 24:

     Nobody meant to be unkind, but nobody put themselves out of their way to secure her comfort.

   • 1950 July 3, “Politicians Without Politics”, in Life, page 16:

     Despite the bursitis, Dewey got in a good round of golf, though his cautious game inspired a reporter to make one of the week′s unkindest remarks: “He plays golf like he plays politics — straight down the middle, and short.”

   • 1974, Laurence William Wylie, Village in the Vaucluse, 3rd edition, page 175:

     We had to learn that to refuse such gifts, which represented serious sacrifice, was more unkind than to accept them.

   • 2000, Edward W. Said, “On Lost Causes”, in Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, page 540:

     In the strictness with which he holds this view he belongs in the company of the novelists I have cited, except that he is unkinder and less charitable than they are.

2. (obsolete) Not kind; contrary to nature or type; unnatural. [from 13th c.]
   • 1582, Stephen Batman, transl., Batman vppon Bartholome His Booke De Proprietatibus Rerum‎^[1], London, Book 7, Chapter 33:

     […] A Feauer is an vnkinde heate, that commeth out of the heart, and passeth into all the members of the bodye, and grieueth the working of the bodye.

   • 1617, John Davies, Wits Bedlam‎^[2], London, Epigram 116:

     Crowes will not feed their yong til 9. daies old,
     Because their vnkind colour makes them doubt
     Them to be theirs;

3. (obsolete) Having no race or kindred; childless.
   • 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC; Shakespeare’s Venus & Adonis: […]‎^[3], 4th edition, London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent and Co. […], 1896, →OCLC:

     O, had thy mother borne so hard a mind,
     She had not brought forth thee, but died unkind.

     The spelling has been modernized.

Derived terms

• unkindest cut

Related terms

• unkindly
• unkindness

Anagrams

• Dunkin, nudnik