Destitute of eloquence.

Of language, composition, etc.: lacking in elegance or polish; deficient in literary merit.

Of speech and the like: Rude, artless.

Of poetry: rough, unpolished; unsophisticated. Chiefly Scottish in early use. Now rare.

Not carefully finished; not skilfully performed; crude, inelegant, unfinessed.

Of a substance or material: coarse. Also (of language): roughly phrased, inelegant. Obsolete.

esp. of language and literary style.

Of a language, dialect: Rude, uncultivated. Of expressions: Unlearned, uncultured, untechnical.

Of diction, style, etc.: lacking grace, elegance, or refinement; crude, unpolished.

Of language: (a) originally not Greek; subsequently not Greek nor Latin; hence, not classical or pure (Latin or Greek), abounding in ‘barbarisms’…

Not eloquent, void of eloquence.

Awkward, clumsy.

= crabbed, adj. 5–7. Obsolete.

Rough, rugged, and inelegant in language.

(un-, prefix1 affix 1.)

= inelegant, adj.

figurative. Lacking elegance or refinement; unsophisticated; uncouth, crude. Cf. incompt, adj., uncombed, adj. 2. Of language or literary style.

Not reduced or smoothed by filing; figurative unpolished, rude.

Of things: Characterized by or showing ignorance of letters, or absence of learning or education; unlearned, unpolished.

Not brought into being; not properly formed or developed.

Of a literary work: displaying a lack of education or learning on the part of the writer; = illiterate, adj. 1b. Obsolete. rare.

Void of neatness; inelegant.

Having the scab or a similar skin-disease; covered with scab or scabs; = scabby, adj. 1. transferred and figurative. Obsolete.

figurative. Rude, inelegant. (Cf. incompt, adj.)

Of style: Incompt, inelegant, unpolished.

Of language, style, etc.

Of personal behaviour, manners, language, etc.: Unrefined; rough, rude, uncivil, vulgar.

Of a condition, quality, action, or thing. Characterized or marked by lack of care, effort, precision, or thoroughness; sloppy, rambling.

Of literary or artistic work: Lacking finish, or maturity of treatment; rough, unpolished.

figurative. Rocky, rough.

That stumbles, in various senses of the verb.