unkempt
[uhn-kempt]
- not combed: unkempt hair.
- uncared-for or neglected; disheveled; messy: unkempt clothes; an unkempt lawn.
- unpolished; rough; crude.
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Origin of unkempt
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
shaggyscruffydilapidatedneglectedgrungygrubbydisheveledmessybedraggledcoarsecrudedirtydisorderedroughslipshodslovenlytousleduncleanunimprovedunpolishedExamples from the Web for unkempt
Contemporary Examples
Lemkin hung around the proceedings, disheveled and unkempt, but determined.
The typically fresh-faced, photogenic 31-year-old actor is sporting a bushy, unkempt, downright Biblical-looking beard.
Andrew Garfield on the Evils of Capitalism, the Hacking Scandal, and Criticism of ‘Spider-Man 2’Marlow Stern
September 10, 2014
Al Pacino comes dressed in black and gray, wearing multiple bracelets and an unkempt tuft of hair poking up from his scalp.
Al Pacino Does What He Wants to Do: 'The Humbling,' Scorsese, and That 'Scarface' RemakeAlex Suskind
September 9, 2014
Strands of unkempt white hair wave above his head like an anti-surrender flag.
Today, instead of men performing backbreaking work on creaking machinery, unkempt grass bends in the light breeze.
Historical Examples
He ran through the unkempt garden, and was quickly at the door.
The Dare Boys of 1776Stephen Angus Cox
Shorn was the unkempt mop of hair and vanished the impudent swagger.
Cy Whittaker's PlaceJoseph C. Lincoln
He even began a smile in the shadows of his unkempt moustache.
The Market-PlaceHarold Frederic
There were two rough-haired, unkempt horses in the tumble-down stable.
The Return of Sherlock HolmesArthur Conan Doyle
Peter knew me not at first, so changed and unkempt was I with my long journeyings.
Sir LudarTalbot Baines Reed
unkempt
- (of the hair) uncombed; dishevelled
- ungroomed; slovenlyunkempt appearance
- archaic crude or coarse
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Word Origin
Old English uncembed; from un- 1 + cembed, past participle of cemban to comb; related to Old Saxon kembian, Old High German kemben to comb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for unkempt
adj.
1570s, from un- (1) "not" + kempt "well-combed, neat," from variant past participle of Old English cemban "to comb," from Proto-Germanic *kambijan, from *kamb- "comb" (see comb). Form unkembed is recorded from late 14c. The verb kemb is rare after 1400s, but its negative past participle form endures.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper