underbred
Americanadjective
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having inferior breeding or manners; vulgar.
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not of pure breed, as a horse.
adjective
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of impure stock; not thoroughbred
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a less common word for ill-bred
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of underbred
Vocabulary lists containing underbred
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“It is underbred, not only in the obvious sense, but in the literary sense.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
The man might be rude and underbred; he was rude and underbred! and was that any justification for my conduct towards him?
From A Day's Ride A Life's Romance by Charles James Lever
She caught him by the collar, looking straight at the exceptionally handsome man with the underbred blaze of yellow on his shirt-front: "Down! down, sir!—You had better go back," to Mr. Van Ness.
From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 20, September, 1877. by Various
Nothing is more underbred than the habit of taking offense, or fancying one's self slighted, on all occasions.
From The American Gentleman's Guide to Politeness and Fashion or, Familiar Letters to his Nephews by Henry Lunettes
When I asked to see the manager of the affair, you know, the Skipper, they showed me an underbred brass-bound official called a Purser, who said he'd put me in irons if I wasn't civil.
From Aliens by William McFee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
