UNTIMELY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does untimely mean? 

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

1. badly timed

2. uncommonly early or before the expected time

  Familiarity information: UNTIMELY used as an adjective is rare.

• UNTIMELY (adverb)
  The adverb UNTIMELY has 1 sense:

1. too soon; in a premature manner

  Familiarity information: UNTIMELY used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNTIMELY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Badly timed

Synonyms:

ill-timed; unseasonable; untimely; wrong

Context example:

it was the wrong moment for a joke

Similar:

inopportune (not opportune)

Derivation:

untimeliness (the quality of occurring at an inconvenient time)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Uncommonly early or before the expected time

Synonyms:

premature; untimely

Context example:

alcohol brought him to an untimely end

Similar:

early (at or near the beginning of a period of time or course of events or before the usual or expected time)

Derivation:

untimeliness (being at an inappropriate time)

• UNTIMELY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Too soon; in a premature manner

Synonyms:

prematurely; untimely

Context example:

I spoke prematurely

Pertainym:

untimely (uncommonly early or before the expected time)

 Context examples 

Once the galaxy loses all of its hydrogen gas — fuel for starbirth — it meets an untimely death because it can no longer create new stars.

(Hubble Sees Plunging Galaxy Losing Its Gas, NASA)

It is not for nothing that I have turned myself out of bed at the untimely hour of six.

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

What made him seek this quarter of the house at an untimely season, when he should have been asleep in bed?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I deplored the untimely death of Mr. Spenlow, most sincerely, and shed tears in doing so.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Margaret, what comment can I make on the untimely extinction of this glorious spirit?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

My lips were parted to murmur out some sleepy words of surprise or remonstrance at this untimely preparation, when suddenly my half-opened eyes fell upon her face, illuminated by the candle-light, and astonishment held me dumb.

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

It is possible that I might have placed them upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given.

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

Who that had seen him bright and joyous in his young beauty, but must weep over his untimely loss!

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

When I remembered where I was at that untimely hour, a feeling stole upon me that made me get up, afraid of I don't know what, and walk about.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Often and often, now, had I seen him in the dead of night passing along the streets, searching, among the few who loitered out of doors at those untimely hours, for what he dreaded to find.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)