ill-deserved

English

Adjective

ill-deserved (comparative more ill-deserved, superlative most ill-deserved)

1. undeserved, unwarranted
   • 1941 October, “Railway Literature”, in Railway Magazine, page 480:

     King's Messenger, 1918-1940: Memoirs of a Silver Greyhound. By George P. Antrobus, O.B.E., King's Foreign Service Messenger 1918-1940. London: Herbert Jenkins Ltd. Price 10s. 6d. net. [...] "The great European express trains have an air of mystery and romance about them. Truth to tell, this is but ill-deserved. Except over the French portion of their journey they have no right to the title of express"—he was writing of conditions before the great speed-up of the last decade— [...].

References

• “ill-deserved”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.