unsparing

English

Etymology

From un- + sparing.

Adjective

unsparing (comparative more unsparing, superlative most unsparing)

1. Without sparing; liberal; profuse; thorough.
   • 1962 August, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 133:

     Only when one has seen a Control Office at first-hand does one realise the vast amount of unsparing but largely unsung work that is behind the eventual publication, perhaps, of a paragraph in this journal's "Motive Power Miscellany" recording the appearance, within hours of the complete blockage of a main line, of many of its trains, passenger and freight, on routes quite foreign to them; and of effective emergency services either side of the disaster area.

2. Pulling no punches; brutal as opposed to politic.
   • 1980 February 9, Andrea Loewenstein, “James Baldwin and His Critics”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 28, page 10:

     [Giovanni's Room] is clearly written out of interior torment, and is an unsparing account of a man fighting against himself. It is certainly not a pleasant book, and David, the narrator, is not "nice" […] but even in its negative ending, it makes a strong statement in favor of self knowledge and accepting one's sexuality.

Derived terms

• unsparingly
• unsparingness

Translations

thorough

• Māori: tōtōpū

References

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

Anagrams

• unparsing