UNDUE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does undue mean? 

• UNDUE (adjective)
  The adjective UNDUE has 4 senses:

1. not yet payable

2. not appropriate or proper (or even legal) in the circumstances

3. lacking justification or authorization

4. beyond normal limits

  Familiarity information: UNDUE used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNDUE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not yet payable

Context example:

an undue loan

Antonym:

due (owed and payable immediately or on demand)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not appropriate or proper (or even legal) in the circumstances

Context example:

accused of using undue force

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Antonym:

due (suitable to or expected in the circumstances)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Lacking justification or authorization

Synonyms:

undue; unjustified; unwarranted

Context example:

unwarranted limitations of personal freedom

Similar:

unreasonable (not reasonable; not showing good judgment)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Beyond normal limits

Synonyms:

excessive; inordinate; undue; unreasonable

Context example:

unreasonable demands

Similar:

immoderate (beyond reasonable limits)

 Context examples 

What a blessing it is, when undue influence does not survive the grave!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

His manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little bend of the knees as he walked.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Ordinary physical activity does not cause undue fatigue, palpitation, or dyspnea.

(New York Heart Association Class, NCI Thesaurus)

Ordinary physical activity does not cause undue fatigue, palpitations, or dyspnea.

(New York Heart Association Class I, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

In the calm with which you learnt you had become suddenly rich, I read a mind clear of the vice of Demas:—lucre had no undue power over you.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I did not go past the doorway, however, for undue preference gives rise to jealousy.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"On the contrary, he was a moral prig," Haythorne blurted out, with apparently undue warmth.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

His mother, coming home, growled as she smelt the wolverine's track, and bounded into the cave and licked and nozzled him with undue vehemence of affection.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

First, as being the means of bringing persons of obscure birth into undue distinction, and raising men to honours which their fathers and grandfathers never dreamt of; and secondly, as it cuts up a man's youth and vigour most horribly; a sailor grows old sooner than any other man.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Just before their setting out from Oxford, while Susan was stationed at a window, in eager observation of the departure of a large family from the inn, the other two were standing by the fire; and Edmund, particularly struck by the alteration in Fanny's looks, and from his ignorance of the daily evils of her father's house, attributing an undue share of the change, attributing all to the recent event, took her hand, and said in a low, but very expressive tone, No wonder—you must feel it—you must suffer.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)