UNSYMPATHETIC

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does unsympathetic mean? 

• UNSYMPATHETIC (adjective)
  The adjective UNSYMPATHETIC has 5 senses:

1. not sympathetic or disposed toward

2. (of characters in literature or drama) tending to evoke antipathetic feelings

3. not having an open mind

4. lacking in sympathy and kindness

5. not agreeing with your tastes or expectations

  Familiarity information: UNSYMPATHETIC used as an adjective is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNSYMPATHETIC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not sympathetic or disposed toward

Context example:

his dignity made him seem aloof and unsympathetic

Similar:

unsympathising; unsympathizing (not showing or expressing sympathy)

Also:

uncompassionate (lacking compassion or feeling for others)

incompatible; uncongenial (not suitable to your tastes or needs)

unresponsive (not responding to some influence or stimulus)

Antonym:

sympathetic (expressing or feeling or resulting from sympathy or compassion or friendly fellow feelings; disposed toward)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(of characters in literature or drama) tending to evoke antipathetic feelings

Synonyms:

unappealing; unlikable; unlikeable; unsympathetic

Context example:

all the characters were peculiarly unsympathetic

Domain category:

drama (the literary genre of works intended for the theater)

Antonym:

sympathetic ((of characters in literature or drama) evoking empathic or sympathetic feelings)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Not having an open mind

Synonyms:

closed; unsympathetic

Context example:

a closed mind unreceptive to new ideas

Similar:

unreceptive (not receptive)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Lacking in sympathy and kindness

Synonyms:

unkindly; unsympathetic

Context example:

unkindly ancts

Similar:

unkind (lacking kindness)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Not agreeing with your tastes or expectations

Synonyms:

disagreeable; unsympathetic

Context example:

a job temperamentally unsympathetic to him

Similar:

incompatible; uncongenial (not suitable to your tastes or needs)

 Context examples 

Martin did not know that Ruth was unsympathetic concerning the creative joy.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Here she paused and looked about the table at the circle of unsympathetic faces staring hard at the plates.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

At which direct defiance the stubborn sneer would reappear upon Professor Summerlee's face, and he would sit, shaking his sardonic head in unsympathetic silence, behind the cloud of his briar-root pipe.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She was silent, unsympathetic, and he watched her moodily, realizing how impossible it was for her to understand what he had been through.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

His tall, gaunt, stringy figure is insensible to fatigue, and his dry, half-sarcastic, and often wholly unsympathetic manner is uninfluenced by any change in his surroundings.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I should advise you— Professor Hilton paused and glared at him, unsympathetic and unimaginative as one of his own test-tubes.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)