unsavory
Americanadjective
-
not savory; tasteless or insipid.
an unsavory meal.
- Synonyms:
- unappetizing, flat
-
unpleasant in taste or smell; distasteful.
-
unappealing or disagreeable, as a pursuit.
Poor teachers can make education unsavory.
-
socially or morally objectionable or offensive.
an unsavory past; an unsavory person.
Other Word Forms
- unsavorily adverb
- unsavoriness noun
Etymology
Origin of unsavory
Middle English word dating back to 1175–1225; un- 1, savory 1
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.
The scene involves an unsavory routine on how to recognize a shoplifter.
From Los Angeles Times
That means "unsavory facts will take longer to come to light, if they do at all. The administration will feel less pressure to provide a coherent justification and plan," he said.
From Barron's
Yes, Montague’s plan in Shirley Jackson’s modern gothic tale is to explore the “various unsavory stories” about the 80-year-old mansion, but he keeps the full extent of his planned experiment to himself.
They settled on House No. 2, which also appeared civilized but in a less unsavory location.
“The rest of the world is seeing these two unsavory alternatives, and bouncing around between these two poles,” says Eswar Prasad, an economist at Cornell University.
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.
