ungrateful
Americanadjective
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unappreciative; not displaying gratitude; not giving due return or recompense for benefits conferred.
ungrateful heirs.
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unpleasant; distasteful; repellent.
an ungrateful task.
adjective
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not grateful or thankful
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unrewarding or unpleasant; thankless
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(of land) failing to increase fertility in response to cultivation
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ungrateful
Explanation
Someone who's ungrateful isn't thankful or appreciative. Your grandmother might think you're ungrateful if you don't send her a handwritten thank you note for the birthday gift she gave you. You are ungrateful if you're unhappy with your neighbor's contribution to your yard sale — a big old television that doesn't work. Your neighbor, in turn, is ungrateful if he accepts the chocolate chip cookies you baked without even saying, "Thanks." The prefix un here means "not," and grateful comes from a now obsolete adjective, grate, "agreeable or thankful," from the Latin root gratus, "pleasing."
Vocabulary lists containing ungrateful
"Tribute to the Dog," Vocabulary from the speech
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Milkweed
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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.
Ungrateful: It is risky to give a gift that requires regular attendance without clearing it with the recipient ahead of time.
From Washington Post • Aug. 21, 2022
“In a refugee camp, stories are everything,” Dina Nayeri, who fled Iran as a child, wrote in her book “The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You.”
From New York Times • Feb. 14, 2022
Q. Ungrateful over clothing: I’ve been married to my husband for 20 years, and my mother-in-law is truly great.
From Slate • Jan. 5, 2021
Ungrateful fans, mischievous bloggers, a newly cautious owner, a gruelling battle to finish fourth in the Premier League and then a referee who shapes an FA Cup semi-final by "bottling" two big decisions.
From The Guardian • Apr. 11, 2010
Ungrateful men indeed, hate him--but he loves his newly adopted country.
From Tales from the German. Volume I. Arwed Gyllenstierna by Velde, C. F. van der (Carl Franz)
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.
