unbecoming

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ becoming. Compare Middle English unbicomelich (“unbecoming”). Equal to unbecome +‎ -ing

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌʌnbɪˈkʌmɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

unbecoming (comparative more unbecoming, superlative most unbecoming)

1. Not flattering, attractive or appropriate.

   She wore a rather unbecoming hairstyle.

   • 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 3, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 25:

     A very small expensive black toque was hideously unbecoming to the yellow, toad-like face beneath it.

   • 2017 July 12, Moe! Ninja Girls, Japan: NTT Solmare, iOS, Android, scene: Season 7, Chapter 7, Part 2:

     ― Lily: “Don’t stare so much. It’s unbecoming. It makes you look like a country bumpkin.”

   • 2017 November 16, Jo Ellison, “Help: the gym has turned us into slobs”, in Financial Times‎^[1]:

     Being a gym bunny is simply unbecoming. Not as unbecoming, perhaps, as the bicycle bunnies, with their helmet hair, their strangely padded Lycras that suggest a degree of sexual depravity and those ridiculous clacky shoes. But we’re not very pleasing to behold.

2. Not in keeping with the expected standards of one's position.

   He was accused of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.

   • 2009 October 29, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Mr Stink, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

     “You must be able to smell it too, Chloe. That smell of . . . Well, I’m not going to say what it reminds me of, that would be impolite and unbecoming of a woman of my class and distinction, but it’s a bad smell.”

Synonyms

• unsuitable
• unfit
• indecent
• indecorous
• improper

Antonyms

• becoming
• befitting
• suiting

Related terms

• unbecomingly
• unbecomingness

Translations

not attractive

• Bulgarian: неподходящ (bg) (nepodhodjašt)
• Dutch: onflatteus (nl), onaantrekkelijk (nl)
• Finnish: mauton (fi)
• German: wenig schmeichelhaft, unschmeichelhaft, unschön (de), unangebracht (de), unpassend (de), wenig anziehend
• Maori: hake

not in keeping with expected standards

• Bulgarian: несъответстващ (nesǎotvetstvašt)
• Dutch: ongepast (nl), onbetamelijk (nl)
• Finnish: sopimaton (fi)
• German: ungebührlich (de), ungehörig, ungehörig
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἀπρεπής (aprepḗs)

• Latin: indecens

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Scottish Gaelic: ^{(please verify)} mì-cheanalta

Verb

unbecoming

1. present participle and gerund of unbecome

Noun

unbecoming (plural unbecomings)

1. The process by which something unbecomes.
   • 2007, Una Chung, Contagion of Living:

     By tracing the turns from U.S. to Japan to China, we can see that becoming American, the classic ethnic American narrative, itself opens to further becomings and unbecomings and rebecomings that address mobility and ethnicization […]

Further reading

• “unbecoming”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “unbecoming”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “unbecoming”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.