un·love·ly

(ŭn-lŭv′lē)

adj. un·love·li·er, un·love·li·est

1. Not deemed visually attractive.

2. Not pleasant; disagreeable: an unlovely personality.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

unlovely

(ʌnˈlʌvlɪ)

adj

1. unpleasant in appearance

2. unpleasant in character

unˈloveliness n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

un•love•ly

(ʌnˈlʌv li)

adj.

1. not lovely; without beauty or charm.

2. harsh or repellent in character; unpleasant; disagreeable; objectionable.

[1350–1400]

un•love′li•ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

unlovely - without beauty or charm

unpicturesque

ugly - displeasing to the senses; "an ugly face"; "ugly furniture"

unlovely

adjective

Not handsome or beautiful:

homely, plain, unattractive, uncomely.

Idioms: not much for looks, not much to look at, short on looks.

Translations

unlovely

[ˈʌnˈlʌvlɪ] ADJ → feo, sin atractivo

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

unlovely

adj sight → unschön; person (in appearance) → abstoßend; (in character) → garstig, unliebenswert

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Then Annie saw, with fear and wonder, that the angry words she uttered changed to dark, unlovely forms, each showing plainly from what fault or passion it had sprung.

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He looked back rapidly, looked down the avenue of a squalid and unlovely life, saw himself the child of drink-sodden and brutal parents, remembered the Board School with its unlovely surroundings, his struggles at a dreary trade, his running away and the fierce draughts of delight which the joy and freedom of the sea had brought to him on the morning when he had crept on deck, a stowaway, to be lashed with every rope-end and to do the dirty work of every one.

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Altogether they were not unlovely when viewed in comparison with the green Martians.

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He was unlovely to the eye, and he was unlovely to all her finer sensibilities.

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He supposed that these unlovely demons were everywhere, in the sunshine as well as in the darkness, and that they were hidden in men's hearts, and stole into their most secret thoughts."

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They are too busy keeping their feet dry, conserving their heart-beats, and making unlovely life-successes of their spirit-mediocrity.

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The veil, which shrouded her whole face, was too thick for me to see more than the glitter of bright eyes and the hazy outline of what might be a lovely oval face, but might also, unfortunately, be an equally unlovely one.

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Had she been short-haired, heavy-jawed, large- muscled, hard-bitten, and utterly unlovely in every way, all would have been well.

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It lacked a door and a window frame, and the chimney of mud and stones had fallen into an unlovely heap, overgrown with rank weeds.

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She, we are told, was coarse, fat, and unlovely, but she was not without brains, for she saw beneath the strange outside of her young lover.

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She had looked on so many unlovely places in her life, poor child; but this was as lovely as anything she had ever dreamed.

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Those two great arches, colourless, indifferent, shouldering between them an unlovely clock, were fit portals for some eternal adventure, whose issue might be prosperous, but would certainly not be expressed in the ordinary language of prosperity.

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