unmeritable

English

Etymology

un- +‎ meritable

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌʌnˈmɛɹɪtəbl̩/

Adjective

unmeritable (comparative more unmeritable, superlative most unmeritable)

1. Not meritable; undeserving of reward.
   • 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 IV, scene i], page 123, column 2:

     This is a ſlight vnmeritable man,
     Meet to be ſent on Errands : is it fit
     The three-fold World diuided, he ſhould ſtand
     One of the three to ſhare it ?

   • 1660, Jeremy Taylor, “Of our Comportment in and after our Receiving the Blessed Sacrament”, in The Worthy Communicant, London: Richard Wellington, published 1701, page 373:

     The effect of this conſideration ought to be, […] that you give God moſt hearty and ſuperexalt’d thanks, with all the tranſports and raviſhments of ſpirit, for ſo unſpeakable, ſo unmeritable, ſo unrewardable a loving kindneſs.

   • 1884 May, “Wordsworth and Byron”, in James Knowles, editor, The Nineteenth Century, volume XV, page 780:

     […] and Wordsworth, it may be confessed, was liable to failure […] with a result sometimes merely trivial and unmeritable, sometimes actually repulsive or oppressive.