unsavory
Americanadjective
-
not savory; tasteless or insipid.
an unsavory meal.
- Synonyms:
- unappetizing, flat
-
unpleasant in taste or smell; distasteful.
-
unappealing or disagreeable, as a pursuit.
Poor teachers can make education unsavory.
-
socially or morally objectionable or offensive.
an unsavory past; an unsavory person.
Other Word Forms
- unsavorily adverb
- unsavoriness noun
Etymology
Origin of unsavory
Middle English word dating back to 1175–1225; un- 1, savory 1
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.
“The rest of the world is seeing these two unsavory alternatives, and bouncing around between these two poles,” says Eswar Prasad, an economist at Cornell University.
Plopping her youngest in front of our local public TV station’s daytime lineup meant she didn’t have to worry about me being exposed to what she viewed as unsavory material.
From Salon
Google and security researchers say the mysterious Chinese company is an unsavory enterprise that sneaks unwanted and dangerous software on millions of phones, home computers and Android devices.
Once I’d surrendered all the unsavory old clothes to Aunt Kitty, I turned to a neat pile of fresh garments stacked on her bed.
From Literature
These unsavory gimmicks do nothing but provide more encouragement to reduce art into something fun to post about online.
From Salon
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.
