unlicked

[uhn-likt]

adjective

1. not licked.

2. Archaic.

   1. not brought into final or proper shape; unfinished.

   2. unpolished or crude.

Word History and Origins

Origin of unlicked¹

First recorded in 1585–95; un- ¹ + lick + -ed ²

Example Sentences

Despite his deep aesthetic investment in these people, James never warmed up to the “terribly earthy and unlicked” Duveneck.

Read more on New York Times

No envelope would go unpushed, or unlicked.

Read more on The Guardian

This unlicked cub was to come and be a sort of general factotum to him, and do his best to help him with his work, and so on.

Read more on Project Gutenberg

He told us at dinner that he had come up to find a good ignorant unlicked cub to help him with his work, who could be trusted to obey an order when he received one and act for himself when he did not.

Read more on Project Gutenberg

This book, like Hodge's razors, was "made to sell;" and if the sometime good-natured world will pay the price, and have its huge grim smile over these unlicked fancies—although in a political, moral, or utilitarian sense it will have gained nothing—it will, in a literal if not literary view, lose nothing.

Read more on Project Gutenberg