uncool
Americanadjective
-
not self-assured or relaxed.
He felt very uncool, making a speech to strangers.
-
not sophisticated or worldly-wise.
adjective
-
unsophisticated; unfashionable
-
excitable; tense; not cool
Etymology
Origin of uncool
1955–60; un- 1 + cool (in the slang senses “socially adept”)
Explanation
Uncool means unstylish or not in fashion, like your dad's uncool jeans or the uncool music he likes to blast in the car when he picks you up from school. (How embarrassing!) The colloquial word cool, meaning "fashionable," or denoting approval in general, has been around since the 1930s and 40s, inspired by jazz slang. Uncool, meaning the exact opposite, first appeared in the 1950s as hipster slang, and it's been in use ever since. So if you're disapproving of or unimpressed with something, it's totally cool to go ahead and call it uncool.
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.
For many listeners at the time, these bands were terminally uncool.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026
Scripts were packed with bad-boy rebels, spoiled teen queens and uncool misfits of all kinds.
From Salon • Feb. 28, 2026
So it’s very uncool but that’s what I’m doing.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 2, 2026
Yet somehow, Under Armour managed to make him uncool.
From Slate • Nov. 15, 2025
She should’ve known how uncool it was to set me up like that.
From "A Good Kind of Trouble" by Lisa Moore Ramée
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.
