underbred
Americanadjective
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having inferior breeding or manners; vulgar.
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not of pure breed, as a horse.
adjective
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of impure stock; not thoroughbred
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a less common word for ill-bred
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of underbred
Vocabulary lists containing underbred
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.
“It is underbred, not only in the obvious sense, but in the literary sense.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
It is the tone of the average adult whenever he enters into conversation with any acquaintance under twelve—an underbred or quite uncalled-for tone of badinage, of quizzing, of insincerity.
From Literature in the Elementary School by Porter Lander MacClintock
"Is he a small, foppish man, full of monstrous airs and graces, and--and rather underbred?"
From Sophia A Romance by Stanley John Weyman
For the others he had expected to find very second-rate types, possibly overdressed, certainly underbred; forward and gushing or awkwardly shy.
From The Red Derelict by Bertram Mitford
I need scarcely say that he met the dignified rebuke such underbred observations merited.
From Sir Jasper Carew His Life and Experience by Charles James Lever
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.
