UNEQUAL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does unequal mean? 

• UNEQUAL (adjective)
  The adjective UNEQUAL has 2 senses:

1. poorly balanced or matched in quantity or value or measure

2. lacking the requisite qualities or resources to meet a task

  Familiarity information: UNEQUAL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNEQUAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Poorly balanced or matched in quantity or value or measure

Similar:

anisometric; unsymmetrical (having unsymmetrical parts or unequal dimensions or measurements)

mismatched; uneven ((of a contest or contestants) not fairly matched as opponents)

nonequivalent (not equal or interchangeable in value, quantity, or significance)

odds-on (having a better than even chance of success)

unbalanced (debits and credits are not equal)

unequalised; unequalized (not caused to be equal)

Also:

incommensurate (not corresponding in size or degree or extent)

Attribute:

equality (the quality of being the same in quantity or measure or value or status)

Antonym:

equal (having the same quantity, value, or measure as another)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lacking the requisite qualities or resources to meet a task

Synonyms:

inadequate; unequal

Context example:

she was unequal to the task

Similar:

deficient; lacking; wanting (inadequate in amount or degree)

incapable; incompetent; unequal to (not meeting requirements)

short-handed; short-staffed; undermanned; understaffed (inadequate in number of workers or assistants etc.)

Also:

unsatisfactory (not giving satisfaction)

Attribute:

adequacy; adequateness (the quality of being able to meet a need satisfactorily:)

 Context examples 

As usual, believing yourself unequal to anything! fancying everything too much for you!

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She continued in very agitated reflections till the sound of Lady Catherine's carriage made her feel how unequal she was to encounter Charlotte's observation, and hurried her away to her room.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

But in England it was not so; among the English, she believed, in their hearts and habits, there was a general though unequal mixture of good and bad.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

More unequal matches are made every day.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Am I unequal to speaking his name at once before all these people?

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

A gene duplication abnormality may occur by gene amplification, random breakage and reunion, retrotransposition or unequal crossing-over at meiosis.

(Gene Duplication Abnormality, NCI Thesaurus)

I persuaded myself that, unequal though we were in years, she would live tranquilly and contentedly with me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Lashing the two topmasts together, and making allowance for their unequal length, at the point of intersection I attached the double block of the main throat-halyards.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

An unequal fight it seemed to most; but there were a few, and they the most experienced, who saw something in the youth's steady gray eye and wary step which left the issue open to doubt.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

From situation, Mrs Clay was, in Lady Russell's estimate, a very unequal, and in her character she believed a very dangerous companion; and a removal that would leave Mrs Clay behind, and bring a choice of more suitable intimates within Miss Elliot's reach, was therefore an object of first-rate importance.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)