untoward
/ʌntəˈwɔːd
/ /ʌnˈtəʊəd /adjective
Unexpected and inappropriate or inconvenient: both tried to behave as if nothing untoward had happened untoward remarks...
- Any untoward effects appear first in this sensitive age group.
- Besides the huge medical waste, the untoward effects of using antibiotics is increasing rapidly.
- A man would be lewd with, or proposition, or tell an untoward joke toward a female.
Synonyms
unexpected, unanticipated, unforeseen, unpredictable, unpredicted;
surprising, unusual;
inopportune, untimely, ill-timed, badly timed, mistimed;
inconvenient, awkward, unwelcome, unfavourable, adverse, unfortunate, infelicitous;
inappropriate, unsuitable, inapt
rare malapropos
archaic unseasonable
Derivatives
untowardly
- The replacement, Enduring Freedom, was well-received in U.S. mass media, an irony-free zone where only the untowardly impertinent might suggest that some people had no choice other than to endure the Pentagon's freedom to bomb.
- But I thought afterwards that I should outline to myself and people reading this blog why I am so sceptical of the EU - seeing as I don't like to appear untowardly negative or a begrudger of people's genuine aims.
- Even the youngish people around me seemed untowardly geeky and uncool, like their mothers had dressed them all.
untowardness
- One has to wonder at the possible untowardness of the caption beneath the shooter on page 47 of the Jan / Feb 2004 issue.
- His untowardness is the effect of environment, an effect for which ‘society’ is somehow responsible.
- They all talked to her as though she was simply obstinate and a fool, not perceiving, as she did herself, that the untowardness of her fortune had prescribed this destiny for her.