UNKIND

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does unkind mean? 

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

1. lacking kindness

2. deficient in humane and kindly feelings

  Familiarity information: UNKIND used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNKIND (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking kindness

Context example:

the unkindest cut of all

Similar:

cutting; edged; stinging ((of speech) harsh or hurtful in tone or character)

harsh; rough (unkind or cruel or uncivil)

hurtful (causing hurt)

unkindly; unsympathetic (lacking in sympathy and kindness)

Also:

malign (evil or harmful in nature or influence)

merciless; unmerciful (having or showing no mercy)

Attribute:

kindness (the quality of being warmhearted and considerate and humane and sympathetic)

Antonym:

kind (having or showing a tender and considerate and helpful nature; used especially of persons and their behavior)

Derivation:

unkindness (lack of sympathy)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Deficient in humane and kindly feelings

Synonyms:

pitiless; unkind

Similar:

inhumane (lacking and reflecting lack of pity or compassion)

Derivation:

unkindness (lack of sympathy)

 Context examples 

Nobody meant to be unkind, but nobody put themselves out of their way to secure her comfort.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The general certainly had been an unkind husband.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

He meant not to be unkind, however, and, as a mark of his affection for the three girls, he left them a thousand pounds a-piece.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

He was very unkind to his first wife.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

It would be so unkind to Jip!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I take it unkind that you should have thought such evil of me.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Tin Woodman knew very well he had no heart, and therefore he took great care never to be cruel or unkind to anything.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

An unkind critic might easily have misinterpreted that dim surface.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

By the way, what was it you put into the wood-pile besides your old trousers? A dead dog, or rabbits, or what? You won’t tell? Dear me, how very unkind of you!

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

“You’re not going away in an unkind spirit, Hudson, I hope,” said my father, with a tameness which made my blood boil.

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