ill-starred

English

Adjective

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

1. doomed to a bad fate; hapless

   Synonym: star-crossed

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 94:

     "Do not name it!" answered he, passionately. "God forgive me! I cannot yet bear its name. But for its ill-starred birth, Henriette might now be living. What is there in that unconscious infant to replace its mother?"

   • 1945 January and February, H. Langford Lewis, “The Uxbridge & Rickmansworth Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 8:

     […] it appears the possibility of the ill-starred Uxbridge-Rickmansworth rail link being built is now bound up with post-war planning. [it was never built]