thankless

English

Etymology

From Middle English thankles, equivalent to thank +‎ -less.

Adjective

thankless (not comparable)

1. (of a task) Not appreciated or rewarded.
   • 2011 November 11, Andrew C. Revkin, “Dot Connection: From Palestinian Politics to Tsunami Warnings”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 November 2011:

     One indispensable and thankless Unesco task is organizing tsunami warnings systems and pushing for tsunami education on risky shores around the world.

   • 2014 November 14, Stephen Halliday, “Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero”, in The Scotsman‎^[2], archived from the original on 7 May 2016:

     In a raucous atmosphere, it was an unforgiving and physical contest from the start. Grant Hanley conceded the first free-kick within the opening 20 seconds, setting the tone for a busy and thankless evening for Serbian referee Milorad Mazic.

2. (of a person) Ungrateful or unappreciative.

Antonyms

• thankful

Translations

unappreciated

• Bulgarian: неблагода́рен (bg) (neblagodáren)
• Catalan: ingrat
• Danish: utaknemmelig
• Dutch: ondankbaar (nl)
• Faroese: ótakksamur
• Finnish: epäkiitollinen (fi)
• German: undankbar (de)
• Hungarian: hálátlan (hu)
• Icelandic: vanþakklátur
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: utakknemlig (no)

  Nynorsk: utakknemleg

• Polish: niewdzięczny (pl)
• Russian: неблагода́рный (ru) (neblagodárnyj)
• Spanish: ingrato (es) m, despreciado (es) m
• Swedish: otacksam (sv)

ungrateful or unappreciative — see ungrateful,‎ unappreciative