adjective
-
lacking moral principles; unscrupulous
-
archaic (foll by in) not versed in the principles of (a subject)
Related Words
See unscrupulous.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unprincipled
First recorded in 1625–35; un- 1 + principled
Explanation
An unprincipled person follows no moral code, has no integrity, and should not be trusted, like the guy who offers to help an old lady across the street but steals her purse instead. No, unprincipled isn't a word we use to describe a school that's missing its principal — we're talking about the -ple word here. If you don't have principles, which is what unprincipled really means, then you don't have scruples or morals. You're likely to do just about anything bad, like break rules, take advantage of people, tell lots of lies, and extort people's lunch money.
Vocabulary lists containing unprincipled
100 SAT Words Beginning with "U"
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Henry David Thoreau "Civil Disobedience" (1849)
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Civil Disobedience
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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.
Unprincipled athletes cheat or change the rules in order to win.
From The Guardian • Apr. 6, 2019
Robin Williams is a Peter Unprincipled, grounded in all the latest guilts and anxieties.
From Time Magazine Archive
Bush's first attack ad, run on the Web, was titled "Unprincipled."
From Time Magazine Archive
Unprincipled or incompetent examiners are to blame for some of these problems, and in fact the uneven quality of the operators is an admitted industry problem.
From Time Magazine Archive
Unprincipled as she was, she did not abandon herself to utter selfishness.
From Notable Women of Olden Time by Anonymous
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.
