unfit
/ʌnˈfɪt
/adjective
1(Of a thing) not of the necessary quality or standard to meet a particular purpose: the land is unfit for food crops...
- In a report, officers said many of the council's buildings were ‘of a poor standard, unattractive to young people, and some are unfit for purpose’.
- Glasgow City Council's secure unit in Ayrshire is ageing and unfit for its purpose.
- They advised the farmers to use canal water as the underground water was unfit for agriculture purpose.
1.1(Of a person) not having the requisite qualities or skills to undertake something competently: she is unfit to have care and control of her children...
- The former clerk of a small town council who was paid more than a Cabinet Minister was ordered to repay £195,000 yesterday after a judge told him he was unfit for public office.
- If that's what Costa wants, he's unfit for office.
- Kenneth Grant, prosecuting, said Peterson had been claiming income support and housing and council tax benefits after declaring she was unfit for work.
2(Of a person) not in good physical condition, typically as a result of failure to take regular exercise: the increase in the number of unfit and overweight children is alarming...
- Physically unfit women at unhealthy weights have higher chronic disease risk.
- Jocks respect physical prowess and look down on unfit people for being weak and lazy.
- Seven backpackers briefly detained along with the eight taken by the rebels said they were allowed to go because they were physically unfit or lacked sturdy walking shoes.
Synonyms
unhealthy, out of condition, out of shape, in poor condition, in poor shape, flabby, debilitated, weak, infirm, decrepit
verb (unfits, unfitting, unfitted) [with object] archaic
Make (something or someone) unsuitable; disqualify: making women printers will only unfit them for the paramount duties of female society...
- And that, Frankfurt says, is what makes it so dangerous: it unfits a person for telling the truth.
- But though, like Holmes, Hamlet is cleverer than everyone around him, his emotionalism and his fondness for poetic flights would unfit him as a private detective.
- He later noted in diary entries written during the draft riots that ‘Wool was unfitted by age for such duties though patriotic and well-disposed.’
Derivatives
unfitly
- A minute discussion of this subject would be a serious task; but if, as before, I am to give only an outline, the subject may not unfitly be summed up as follows.
- I had in my days not unfitly been likened to Sir Philip, only with this difference - that I had the better leg and more amiable face.
- The enlightened throughout the world will concur in the opinion that this proud and most honourable badge was most unfitly bestowed.
unfitness
/ noun ...- The main body of complaints of unfitness to practice by reason of physical or mental disability were linked to substance abuse, she said.
- The toytown politicians who dreamed it up have demonstrated their unfitness to govern us, and should be sent packing at the next election.
- These new proposals should go a long way to help tackle problems of unfitness and disrepair which are all too common in this sector.