un·re·li·a·ble
(ŭn′rĭ-lī′ə-bəl)adj.
Marked by or exhibiting a lack of reliability.
un′re·li′a·bil′i·ty, un′re·li′a·ble·ness n.
un′re·li′a·bly adv.
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.
unreliability
(ˌʌnrɪlaɪəˈbɪlətɪ) orunreliableness
n
the condition of being not reliable or untrustworthy
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
Reliability/Unreliability
See Also: FIRMNESS, STEADINESS
- (I found the almond trees as) dependable as the swallows of Capistrano, announcing another spring —Wallace Stegner
- As reliable as the day following the night —Dorothea Straus
- [A collection of art works] as spotty as a Dalmation and not half as beautiful —Manuela Hoelterhoff, on the new Wallace wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wall Street Journal, March 17, 1987
- Consistent and productive as machines —Gay Gaer Luce
- Dealing with Owen Roe was like walking across a bog. You never knew when the ground might give way under your feet —Julia O’Faolain
- Dependable as a floating crap game —Harry Prince
- Dependable as clockwork … —Anon
- Dependable as daylight —Beryl Markham
- A duty dodged is like a debt unpaid; it is only deferred, and we must come back and settle the account at last —Joseph Fort
- Duty without responsibility is like pomp without power —Edward, Duke of Windsor
- Fickle as a changeful dream —Sir Walter Scott
- It [buying a house] was like joining a church because it committed me to spending every weekend I could get … to working on the place —George V. Higgins
- (You’ve got) no more responsibility than a one-eyed jack rabbit —Elmer Kelton
- Reliability’s like a string we can only see the middle of —William McFee
- (About as) reliable as a Pravda editorial —Joseph Wambaugh
- Reliable as a salary —Frank R. Stockton
- Reliable as crystal balls, goat innards, and prayer —Harold Adams
- Reliable as he was eccentric —Mark Twain
- Reliable as reading tea leaves or the bumps on one’s head —Peter J. Bonacich, letter to editor of Discover, April, 1986
- Responsibility rested upon him as lightly as the freckles on his nose —Alice Caldwell Hegan
- Solid as tombstones —Helen Hudson
- Wore, like a garment, an air of wholesome reliability —Mazo De La Roche
- Would always be there … like some familiar landmark —Barbara Pym, The Sweet Dove Died
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
| Noun | 1. |  unreliability - the trait of not being dependable or reliableirresponsibility, irresponsibleness - a form of untrustworthiness; the trait of lacking a sense of responsibility and not feeling accountable for your actions instability - unreliability attributable to being unstable irreproducibility - the quality of being unreproducible; "he could not explain the irreproducibility of the results of his experiment" fallibility - the likelihood of making errors dependability, dependableness, reliability, reliableness - the quality of being dependable or reliable |
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations
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
unreliability
[ˌʌnrɪlaɪəˈbɪləti] nCollins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
unreliability
n → Unzuverlässigkeit f
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995