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UNPLEASANT
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Offensive or disagreeable; causing discomfort or unhappiness
Example:
unpleasant odors
Classified under:
Similar:
unpleasing (unpleasant or disagreeable to the senses)
unhappy (causing discomfort)
ungrateful (disagreeable)
sharp; sharp-worded; tart (harsh)
rebarbative; repellant; repellent (serving or tending to repel)
afflictive; painful; sore (causing misery or pain or distress)
acerb; acerbic; acid; acrid; bitter; blistering; caustic; sulfurous; sulphurous; virulent; vitriolic (harsh or corrosive in tone)
beastly; god-awful; hellish ((informal) very unpleasant)
dour; forbidding; grim (harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance)
embarrassing; mortifying (causing to feel shame or chagrin or vexation)
harsh; rough (unpleasantly stern)
harsh (unpleasantly rough or jarring to the senses)
hot (very unpleasant or even dangerous)
Also:
displeasing (causing displeasure or lacking pleasing qualities)
unpalatable (not pleasant or acceptable to the taste or mind)
offensive (unpleasant or disgusting especially to the senses)
awful; nasty (offensive or even (of persons) malicious)
ill-natured (having an irritable and unpleasant disposition)
disagreeable (not to your liking)
inaesthetic; unaesthetic (violating aesthetic canons or requirements; deficient in tastefulness or beauty)
Attribute:
pleasantness; sweetness (the quality of giving pleasure)
Antonym:
pleasant (affording pleasure; being in harmony with your taste or likings)
Derivation:
unpleasantness (the quality of giving displeasure)
unpleasantness (the feeling caused by disagreeable stimuli; one pole of a continuum of states of feeling)
Context examples:
An unpleasant memory or idea that occurs often in a person’s everyday thoughts and keeps him or her from thinking about other things.
(Interfering thought, NCI Dictionary)
A sensation of discomfort or distress that is very unpleasant.
(Hurting Pain, NCI Thesaurus)
I confess that it left an unpleasant effect upon my mind.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The act of staying away from people, places, and thoughts that may cause anxiety, pain, or unpleasant feelings.
(Avoidance, NCI Dictionary)
Dysesthesia can cause an ordinary stimulus to be unpleasant or painful.
(Dysesthesia, NCI Dictionary)
Elinor now found the difference between the expectation of an unpleasant event, however certain the mind may be told to consider it, and certainty itself.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
The feelings of the person who wrote, and the person who received it, are now so widely different from what they were then, that every unpleasant circumstance attending it ought to be forgotten.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
This technology, which was applied on an industrial scale at the facilities of Biomasa del Guadalquivir, uses a semi-permeable cover (membrane) system that prevents unpleasant smells from escaping and shortens the process time.
(Scientists validate a new technology that transforms sewage sludge into fertilizer more efficiently, University of Granada)
Chemicals previously known to block mosquitoes’ carbon dioxide receptor can’t be used around people because of unpleasant odors and health safety concerns.
(How mosquitoes detect people, NIH)
He resumed his unpleasant and stealthy advance, pointing his toes as he walked, like a dancing master.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)