unfriendly
Americanadjective
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not amicable; not friendly or kindly in disposition; unsympathetic; aloof.
an unfriendly coldness of manner.
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hostile; antagonistic.
an unfriendly act of aggression.
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unfavorable; inhospitable or inimical, as an environment.
an unfriendly climate for new ideas.
adverb
adjective
-
not friendly; hostile
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unfavourable or disagreeable
adverb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unfriendly
before 900; Middle English (adj.); Old English unfreondlīche (adv.). See un- 1, friendly
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.
See Examples For:
Firstly, countries viewed as unfriendly by Moscow still wanted at least some channel of communication with Russian officials to get an accurate picture of what was happening inside the country.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026
Come to think of it, not unfriendly at all.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
The rush for cooling units comes despite longstanding scepticism towards air conditioning in France, with eight in 10 people viewing it as environmentally unfriendly, according to one survey.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
“That makes an unfriendly environment for Asian FX,” they add.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
She didn’t mean to seem unfriendly or even ungrateful, though it was tiresome to be always beholden to Amelia.
From "Lyddie" by Katherine Paterson
The money piece never quite shook out on the avant-garde, and by the 1980s the lofts had mostly closed amid rising rents and unfriendlier civic attitudes toward semi-legal assembly.
From New York Times ● Mar. 17, 2022
And the gallant Red Admiral, the brave beautiful Red Admiral that had dared unfriendlier gales, trimmed his painted sails to a wind that was the breath of spring.
From Slippy McGee, Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man by Marie Conway Oemler
Some of the less grateful passages had been censored by Medora's own hand and the unfriendlier of the critics thus partially disarmed in advance.
From Under the Skylights by Henry Blake Fuller
The tale results in a flashback to a Dickensian-looking period when Sesame Street was known as “the unfriendliest street in town” and ancestors of all the current gang spent their days crabbing at one another.
From New York Times ● Nov. 23, 2016
To find out that you are not so good or generous or magnanimous as you thought is, next to having other people find it out, probably the unfriendliest discovery that can be made.
From A Fearful Responsibility and Other Stories by William Dean Howells
She clasped a chain about the hound's neck, and they set off westward towards the house of Fergus Fionnliath, who was reputed to be the unfriendliest man in the world to a dog.
From Irish Fairy Tales by James Stephens
The expression of the miner's eyes promised the unfriendliest kind of "capers" if he should ever get an opportunity to cut them.
From The Talking Leaves An Indian Story by William Osborn Stoddard
I am in Italy—in Genoa, to be sure, which of all Italian cities passes for the unfriendliest to the Muse: but that is my probation.
From Sir John Constantine Memoirs of His Adventures At Home and Abroad and Particularly in the Island of Corsica: Beginning with the Year 1756 by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
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