unbelted
Americanadjective
Explanation
If you're unbelted, you're not strapped securely in your seat. Don't even pull the car out of the driveway if any of your passengers are unbelted! The adjective unbelted means "without a belt" or "with an unbuckled belt." So if you haven't clicked your seatbelt yet, you're unbelted, and if your pants are falling down, it may be because you're unbelted. This word is formed by adding the prefix un-, "not," to belted, "secured by a strip of material around the waist."
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 analysis excluded crashes in which the person was unbelted or ejected, and also crashes in which the car rolled over or caught fire.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 8, 2025
This simulation shows what happens to an unbelted rear seat passenger in case of a collision.
From BBC • Sep. 7, 2022
Over 800 people who were unbelted in the back seat die each year in car crashes.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 19, 2021
That same year, Nobel Prize economics winner John Nash and his wife, Alicia, were unbelted in the back seat of a taxi when the vehicle crashed on the New Jersey Turnpike.
From Washington Post • Mar. 2, 2018
As each rider swung down from his saddle, he unbelted his aiakh and handed it to a waiting slave, and any other weapons he carried as well.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
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.
