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ungenteel. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Etymology
From un- + genteel.
Adjective
ungenteel (comparative more ungenteel, superlative most ungenteel)
- Not genteel; coarse and ill-mannered.
1724, Daniel Defoe, Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress:He was a jolly, handsome fellow, as any woman need wish for a companion; tall and well made; rather a little too large, but not so as to be ungenteel; he danced well, which I think was the first thing that brought us together.
1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. , volume (please specify |volume=III or IV), London: John Murray, , 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC:“Well, it would serve to cure him of an absurd practice of never asking a question at an inn, which he had adopted, when quite a young man, on the principal of its being very ungenteel to be curious. […] ”
- 1845, Charles Dickens, The Cricket on the Hearth, Chirp the Second,
- If I might be allowed to mention a young lady’s legs on any terms, I would observe of Miss Slowboy’s that there was a fatality about them which rendered them singularly liable to be grazed; and that she never effected the smallest ascent or descent without recording the circumstance upon them with a notch, as Robinson Crusoe marked the days upon his wooden calendar. But, as this might be considered ungenteel, I’ll think of it.
1958, A.G. Yates, The Cold Dark Hours, Sydney: Horwitz, published 1963, page 135:The paint on the walls was cracked and peeling. It had an air of ungenteel decay.
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