unwholesome

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English unholsom; equivalent to un- +‎ wholesome.

Adjective[edit]

unwholesome (comparative more unwholesome, superlative most unwholesome)

  1. Not wholesome; unfavorable to health; unhealthful.
    unwholesome air, or food
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 4:
      Caliban: As wicked dewe, as ere my mother bruſh'd / With Rauens feather from vnwholeſome Fen / Drop on you both : A Southweſt blow on yee, / And bliſter you all ore.
    • 1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Heath's Book of Beauty, 1833, The Enchantress, page 17:
      Alas! he mastered not his destiny: I have said before, his ashes are in yonder urn. A few unwholesome dews on a summer night were mightier than all his science.
  2. Not sound; tainted; defective.
    • 2022, Ian McEwan, Lessons, page 184:
      There was something indefinably unwholesome about him. Something lean and snakelike.
  3. Indicating unsound health; characteristic of or suggesting an unsound condition, physical or mental; repulsive; offensive.

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