ill-bred
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- ill-breeding noun
Etymology
Origin of ill-bred
First recorded in 1615–25
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.
If mirrors and windows had 3-D offspring, they might be the ill-bred second cousins of Alexander’s fantastic sculptures.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 21, 2016
“There is nothing more ill-bred than trying to steal the affections of one’s dog.”
From Washington Times • Dec. 29, 2015
It’s horribly ill-bred and impolite to simply go silent.
From Forbes • Sep. 25, 2014
Give him the benefit of the doubt and suppose that he failed to thank you properly because he had an extended moment of thoughtlessness, not because he is the ill-bred ingrate that his inaction suggests.
From Slate • Jun. 4, 2014
An ill-bred falcon, who was subject to the vice of screaming, stood hooded and motionless on a perch like a parrot’s, brooding in some ancestral nightmare.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
