undesirability
un·de·sir·a·ble
U0063600 (ŭn′dĭ-zīr′ə-bəl)Undesirability
- About as inviting as Lenin’s tomb —Manuela Hoelterhoff, reporting on a large wall surrounding a new museum complex in Los Angeles, Wall Street Journal, December 15, 1986
- About as pleasant as to have an umbrella jammed down your throat, and opened there, and pulled out open, so that the broken ribs lacerate your lungs, and beaten over the head with the handle —Don Marquis
- About as thrilling as swimming lessons would be to a middle-aged goldfish —H. C. Witwer
- As bad as marrying the devil’s daughter and living with the old folks —G. L. Apperson
- As bad as offering Satan a lost soul —Emily Bronte
- As desirable as meeting a former lover during a honeymoon —Elyse Sommer
- As much fun as a month in Gdansk —Joseph Wambaugh
- (John Singer Sargent liked to make painting portraits sound) attractive as catching toads for a living —Manuela Hoeltershoff, introducing review of John Singer Sargent show at Whitney Museum, Wall Street Journal, October 15, 1986
- Come like ill weather, unsent for —Brian Melbancke
- (She was … ) desirable … like a whore on a street corner —Derek Lambert
- Disagreeable … like a scent which raises fine hair on animals —John Updike
- Gave him no pleasure … it was like being invited to stretch himself out to be amputated, without an anesthetic —Storm Jameson
- (Haggling about military bases) has all the joys of arm-wrestling on a sinking raft —New York Times editorial, March 23, 1987
- Have about as much pleasure ahead of us as a pig in a butcher shop —George Garrett
- Jumped at the chance like a sardine leaps for the can —Anon
- Liked … about as much as I liked snakes or trunk murders —T. Coraghessan Boyle
- Like foul weather, you come unsent for, and troublesome when you come —H. G. Bohn’s Handbook of Proverbs
- To love as a cat loves mustard —John Ray’s Proverbs
- Needed [an unpleasant scene] like a cover girl needs acne —Loren D. Estleman
- Position as enviable as that of a catcher on a javelin team —George V. Higgins, on Rolland Smith’s interaction with Mariette Hartley on CBS-TV program, Wall Street Journal, January 19, 1987
- To love as the devil loves holy water —John Ray’s Proverbs
- To love it as a dog loves a whip —John Ray’s Proverbs
- A trifle less welcome than something you would scrape off the bottom of your shoe —C. W. Grafton
- An unpleasant guest is as welcome as salt to a sore eye —Danish proverb
- Unsatisfying as a set compliment —Heywood Broun
- Unwelcome as a mouse in your shoe —Elyse Sommer
- Wanted (to play baseball) like he wanted a third nostril —Max Shulman
- Welcome as a guest with sneakers at a Palm Beach party —Tom Brokaw
- Welcome as a mugger —Anon
- Welcome as a painful and chronic disease —Elyse Sommer
- Welcome as a storm —Thomas Fuller
- Welcome as a tree falling across your Volkswagon —“PM-TV Magazine”
- Welcome as Satan —Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Welcome as snow at harvest time —John Ray’s Proverbs
- Welcome as the season’s first snowstorm —Anon
A skier or ski resort operator might look for this under the Desirability category.
- (In the rarefied upper echelons of Japanese sumo wrestling, foreigners have been about as) welcome as Visigoths were at the gates of Rome —Clyde Haberman, about wrestler from Hawaii, New York Times, May 28, 1987
- Welcome as water in a leaking ship —John Ray’s Proverbs
To tone down the image of disaster to common distress, there’s another Ray proverb: “As welcome as water in one’s shoes.”
- Welcomed … the way a cardiac case does chest pains —William Mcllvanney
| Noun | 1. |  undesirability - the quality possessed by something that should be avoided |