underbred

American  

[uhn-der-bred] / ˌʌn dərˈbrɛd /

adjective

1. having inferior breeding or manners; vulgar.

2. not of pure breed, as a horse.

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underbred British  

/ ˌʌndəˈbrɛd /

adjective

1. of impure stock; not thoroughbred

2. a less common word for ill-bred

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Other Word Forms

• underbreeding noun

Etymology

Origin of underbred

First recorded in 1640–50; under- + bred

Example Sentences

“It is underbred, not only in the obvious sense, but in the literary sense.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Or ‘Now I’d better darn my brown stockings,’ ” and it is characteristic that the word she should find to express her critical reservations about “Ulysses” is “underbred.”

From The New Yorker

Virginia Woolf called it an “illiterate, underbred” book.

From New York Times

"Is he a small, foppish man, full of monstrous airs and graces, and--and rather underbred?"

From Project Gutenberg

He had to turn away that the coarse-grained, underbred man beside him might not see too much.

From Project Gutenberg