unpresentable

(ˌʌnprɪˈzɛntəbəl)

adj

not fit to be shown or introduced to other people

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

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

unpresentable - creating an unfavorable or neutral first impression

unprepossessing

unattractive - lacking beauty or charm; "as unattractive as most mining regions"

Translations

unpresentable

[ˈʌnprɪˈzentəbl] ADJ → mal apersonado

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

unpresentable

adj (in appearance) → nicht präsentabel; clothes also → unansehnlich; (socially) → nicht gesellschaftsfähig; most of his friends are unpresentable → mit den meisten seiner Freunde kann man sich in der Öffentlichkeit nicht blicken lassen

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

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References in classic literature

As I lay in bed this morning between sleeping and waking, an idea came riding on a sunbeam into my room,--a mad, whimsical idea, but one that suits my mood; and put briefly, it is this: how is it that I, a not unpresentable young man, a man not without accomplishments or experience, should have gone all these years without finding that

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She had counted upon an even dozen seating themselves at her round mahogany board, forgetting for the moment that Madame Ratignolle was to the last degree souffrante and unpresentable, and not foreseeing that Madame Lebrun would send a thousand regrets at the last moment.

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Mr Meagles regretted that the nature of the duties in which she was engaged, rendered Mrs Tickit unpresentable at present, but hoped to introduce her to the new visitor to-morrow.

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I could better eat with one who did not respect the truth or the laws than with a sloven and unpresentable person.

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The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.

My Mercedes Is Bigger Than Yours (2)

The first is patient hope; it is unpresentable, secure trust, and courageous patience.

Ecumenical Theology of Hope for the Common Oikos and the Greed Line as Principle of Sustainability

As the mode of the tentative and the liminal [...] meant to explore boundaries [...] or ceaselessly and failingly probe at the limits of representation and understanding, romance [...] presents that there is something unpresentable, inaccessible, inassimilable.

The romance and the real: A.S. Byatt's Possession: A Romance

Ambiguity is precisely a key word for traumatized subjects, as Freiburg points out, since as memories of a trauma are influenced by imagination, they are unreliable, however they "represent a version of truth" (77), thanks to the new art of trauma which seeks to "represent the unpresentable" (83).

Contemporary Trauma Narratives: Liminality and the Ethic of Form

Boose, '"The Getting of a Lawful Race": Racial Discourse in Early Modern England and the Unpresentable Black Woman', in Women, 'Race', and Writing, ed.

Cosmopolitanism and 'Strange Flesh' in Antony and Cleopatra