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''untoward'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260904152658-00-⌔

untoward - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

untoward (comparative more untoward, superlative most untoward)

  • Unfavourable, adverse, or disadvantageous.
    • ✤ Synonyms: adverse, disadvantageous, inconvenient, unfavorable, unfortunate
    • ✤ But as soon as her son espied her, bowl in hand, he thought that haply something untoward had befallen her, but he would not ask of aught until such time as she had set down the bowl, when she acquainted him with that which had occurred […]1
    • ✤ Honest men for the most part, but men with whom the world had dealt hardly; the failures of all countries, men sobered by toil and saddened by exile, who had been driven to fight for the dominion of an untoward soil, to sow where others should gather, the advance-guard of a mighty civilization to be.2
    • ✤ At Tebay however, he began to get the mastery over these untoward conditions, and actually got back a little time up to Shap, after which all was plain sailing.3
    • ✤ No untoward effects were reported; however, this was not a blinded or controlled study.4
    • ✤ However, these guidelines may not be applicable to all individuals with refractory epilepsy, in whom seizure control is not achieved without using polytherapy or resection surgery with their untoward side effects.5
  • Unruly, troublesome; not easily guided.
    • ✤ Synonyms: difficult, fractious, stubborn, troublesome, uncontrollable, unruly
  • Unseemly, improper.
    • ✤ Synonyms: immodest, improper, unseemly
    • ✤ She could hardly have made a more untoward choice.6
    • ✤ The managing director was very depressed at the news, but realized that trying to prove anything untoward had taken place would be very difficult.7
    • ✤ “I have a suspicion that someone is trying to recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward,” Gaetz said. As only he could.8

Etymology

From un- +‎ toward (“to +‎ -ward”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /ˌʌn.tʊˈwɔːd/
  • (US) IPA: /ˌʌn.təˈwɔɹd/, /ˌʌn.tʊˈwɔɹd/, /ʌnˈtɔɹd/
  • Audio (Australia): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)d

Printed 2026-09-04.

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Footnotes

  1. 1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC: ↩

  2. 1900, Willa Cather, “Eric Hermannson’s Soul”, in Cosmopolitan, 28:633 (April): ↩

  3. 1941 November, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 484: ↩

  4. 2004, Jan Riordan, chapter 5, in Breastfeeding and Human Lactation, →ISBN, page 149: ↩

  5. 2007, Steven C. Schachter et al., chapter 4, in Behavioral Aspects of Epilepsy: Principles and Practice, →ISBN, page 282: ↩

  6. 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 2–3: ↩

  7. 2005, John Martin, Organizational Behaviour and Management, →ISBN, page 518: ↩

  8. 2021 April 8, Gail Collins, quoting Matt Gaetz, “Here’s … Matt Gaetz”, in The New York Times ‎, →ISSN: ↩

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Secondary

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