unpromise

From un- +‎ promise.

unpromise (usually uncountable, plural unpromises)

1. Lack of promise; poor prospects; unpromising outlook.
   • 2004, Ray Bradbury, ‎Steven L. Aggelis, Conversations with Ray Bradbury, page 25:

     So I was a writer of early unpromise. All my stories from the age of twelve until I was at least twenty-two were pretty bad.

   • 2009, Liza Dalby, East Wind Melts the Ice: A Memoir Through the Seasons, page 222:

     The resulting brew did not smell promising, and the taste more than lived up to the unpromise.

   • 2016, Christine A. Jones, Mother Goose Refigured:

     To be sure, scholars have noted that occasionally heroines of the Cinderalla plot, known through folkloric classification as ATU 510, "gain all the time in determination and strength" through their sufferingg and "begin to lose their tag of unpromise and start shaping their lives and futures, at times, not without a little deception.”

   • 2016, Dr. Minerva Santerre, A Bridge That Hugged Tomorrow:

     I had God's promise that he was there to bring us into the land of promises, or unpromises.

unpromise (third-person singular simple present unpromises, present participle unpromising, simple past and past participle unpromised)

1. (transitive) To revoke or annul (something promised before).
   • 1605, George Chapman, All Fools:

     Promises are no fetters: with that tongue
     Thy promise past, unpromise it again.

   • 2015, Ruth Price, Before An Amish Country Calamity:

     "But I promised Annie we'd take them, Joseph." " Well , you're just going to have to unpromise her!"

   • 2024, Sylvia Bishop ·, On Silver Tides:

     It wouldn't be a promise if you could just unpromise it.

• neo-purism, simon-pure