unscrupulous
/ʌnˈskruːpjʊləs
/adjective
Having or showing no moral principles; not honest or fair: unscrupulous landlords might be tempted to harass existing tenants...
- These unscrupulous rulers violated every principle of Islam to survive in power.
- The situation has not been helped by unscrupulous landlords renting out property to anybody no matter what their history.
- Mrs Strong said that unscrupulous landlords in the area were attracting unruly tenants.
Synonyms
unprincipled, unethical, immoral, amoral, conscienceless, untrustworthy, shameless, reprobate, exploitative, corrupt, corrupted, dishonest, fraudulent, cheating, dishonourable, deceitful, devious, underhand, guileful, cunning, furtive, sly, wrongdoing, unsavoury, disreputable, improper, bad, evil, wicked, villainous, roguish, sinful, ignoble, degenerate, venal
informal crooked, shady, shifty, slippery
British informal dodgy
archaic dastardly
Derivatives
unscrupulously
/ adverb ...- Rather unscrupulously, Rudy decides to pose as his best friend Nick (who was stabbed a few days before his release) in order to enjoy the festive period with Ashley, Nick's unfeasibly attractive love interest.
- It's terrible to think that civic-minded people doing their bit for the environment are being penalised by the despicable actions of some, who unscrupulously use the bottle bank for something other than its sole purpose.
- That powerful interests in society act unscrupulously without checks and balances on their power is a lesson that we would do well to remember when considering the direction one wing of the Socialist movement took in 1917.
unscrupulousness
/ noun ...- But he finds - dear me, how distressing - that talent counts for nothing in comparison to money, intrigue, and unscrupulousness.
- And yet these are also the people whose evasiveness and unscrupulousness makes them the least likely to be affected by a geographically bounded anti-spam law.
- It was, according to Balzac, a world in which talent counted for nothing, and bribery, intrigue and unscrupulousness were the key factors in success.