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UNTOWARD
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Contrary to your interests or welfare
Example:
made a place for themselves under the most untoward conditions
Synonyms:
adverse; inauspicious; untoward
Classified under:
Similar:
unfavorable; unfavourable (not encouraging or approving or pleasing)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Not in keeping with accepted standards of what is right or proper in polite society
Example:
moved to curb their untoward ribaldry
Synonyms:
indecent; indecorous; unbecoming; uncomely; unseemly; untoward
Classified under:
Similar:
improper (not suitable or right or appropriate)
Context examples:
Impatient to get rid of those hateful evidences of her folly, those detestable papers then scattered over the bed, she rose directly, and folding them up as nearly as possible in the same shape as before, returned them to the same spot within the cabinet, with a very hearty wish that no untoward accident might ever bring them forward again, to disgrace her even with herself.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
The hermit frowned at the untoward noise which broke upon his prayers, but his brow relaxed as he looked upon the broad silver piece which John held out to him.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Pluto also rules secrets, and in this testing aspect, if anything untoward has been going on below the surface, the news will rise up to be revealed and judged.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram received her very kindly; and Sir Thomas, seeing how much she needed encouragement, tried to be all that was conciliating: but he had to work against a most untoward gravity of deportment; and Lady Bertram, without taking half so much trouble, or speaking one word where he spoke ten, by the mere aid of a good-humoured smile, became immediately the less awful character of the two.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
But Catherine did not know her own advantages—did not know that a good-looking girl, with an affectionate heart and a very ignorant mind, cannot fail of attracting a clever young man, unless circumstances are particularly untoward.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
I have found that random, untoward events often push me into a better place. Is there stress? Oh sure, I have felt intense stress, but in hindsight I always see the event I thought was the end of the world turn out to be a gift from the universe.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
Mr. Yates's family and connexions were sufficiently known to him to render his introduction as the particular friend, another of the hundred particular friends of his son, exceedingly unwelcome; and it needed all the felicity of being again at home, and all the forbearance it could supply, to save Sir Thomas from anger on finding himself thus bewildered in his own house, making part of a ridiculous exhibition in the midst of theatrical nonsense, and forced in so untoward a moment to admit the acquaintance of a young man whom he felt sure of disapproving, and whose easy indifference and volubility in the course of the first five minutes seemed to mark him the most at home of the two.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
She had found a seat, where in excessive trembling she was enduring all these fearful thoughts, while the other three, no longer under any restraint, were giving vent to their feelings of vexation, lamenting over such an unlooked-for premature arrival as a most untoward event, and without mercy wishing poor Sir Thomas had been twice as long on his passage, or were still in Antigua.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
