unkemptadj.
/(ˌ)ʌnˈkɛm(p)t/, U.S. /ˌənˈkɛm(p)t/ 1.
a. Of hair, a beard, etc.: not combed, well-maintained, or neatly arranged; untidy, disarrayed, scruffy.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > hair > types of hair > [adjective] > tangled
tattered1340
unkempt?a1439
dishevelc1450
tatty1513
tautyc1560
feltered1567
dishevelled1582
elf-locked1647
tatted1716
tauted1786
matty-haired1824
tangle-haired1861
draggle-haired1865
tangle-headed1884
waulked1894
natty1974
a1439 J. Lydgate Fall of Princes (Bodl. 263) vi. l. 870 Blak his weede & his habite also, His hed vnkempt, his lokkis hor & gray.
1533 T. Elyot Of Knowl. Wise Man i. f. 9v Her hed vnkempt, her face and handes soiled.
1561 J. Heywood tr. Seneca Hercules Furens iii. sig. H4 His bearde vnkempt, his hosome fowle deformde.
1622 J. Mabbe tr. M. Alemán Rogue i. 40 Her haire sluttishly hanging about her eares, vnkempt.
1737 W. Shenstone Poems upon Var. Occasions 17 Oft-times [they]..For..unkempt Hair are sore y-shent.
1797 M. Robinson Walsingham I. iv. 74 With ebon locks unkempt and mean attire.
a1854 Ld. Cockburn Memorials (1856) iv. 268 The bur in the throat,..the unkempt locks.
1884 Boston Globe Oct. His unkempt hair, gawky appearance, and homespun suit.
1921 P. B. Kyne Pride of Palomar xii. 136 Farrel..reached for the horse's unkempt mane.
1961 Times of India 29 Oct. (Asia Mag.) 19/1 There was an old man with long unkempt hair and beard standing over me.
2013 C. Tsiolkas Barracuda (2014) 350 He had..an unkempt salt-and-pepper beard.
b. Of a person or (occasionally) an animal: having uncombed or untidy hair; (hence) scruffy or dishevelled in appearance.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > lack of beauty > [adjective] > unkempt
unkempt1567
unmustered?1574
ungroomed1864
bummy1890
warby1941
schlubby1968
the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > beautification of the person > beautification of the hair > styles of hair > [adjective] > combed > not
unkembeda1393
uncombed1561
unkempt1567
1567 G. Turberville tr. G. B. Spagnoli Eglogs vi. f. 52v The Countrey boyes vnkempt In patched garments knit.
1748 J. Thomson Castle of Indolence i. lxi Unkempt, and rough, of squalid face and mein.
1812 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Cantos I & II i. xvii. 16 Though shent with Egypt's plague, unkempt, unwash'd.
1877 W. Black Green Pastures xlv Tall, uncouth, unkempt fellows..seated on a bench smoking.
1927 N.Y. Times 1 Jan. 19/6 He took the shaggy, unkempt animal to the horse fair.
1969 J. Singer tr. I. B. Singer Estate i. vi. 74 They were swarthy, unkempt, with weary eyes and tousled hair.
2015 W. Blight I Know his Name iv. 182 A dirty, unkempt man on a mat appears out of nowhere.
c. Of a person's or (occasionally) an animal's appearance, condition, etc.: characterized by uncombed or untidy hair; (more generally) scruffy, dishevelled.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > dirtiness > [adjective] > dirty and mean
ungoderlyc1400
sluttish?1529
squalid1596
scrubbing1603
sordid1611
snotty1681
frowzy1710
grub1719
seedy1725
unkempt1838
grubby1844
crumby1859
ratty1867
scruffy1871
scrutty1914
scummy1932
ribby1936
raunchy1937
sleazy1941
scroungy1948
manky1958
skanky1963
grungy1965
scungy1966
scuzzy1969
scrungy1974
skeevy1976
1838 Times 4 June 5/4 Reference has been made..to their present unkempt and unshaven appearance.
1864 M. E. Braddon Doctor's Wife I. i. 10 The horse had a rakish, unkempt look about the head and mane.
a1911 P. V. Mighels As it was in Beginning (1912) xii. 96 Sidney was daily assuming a wild and unkempt aspect that he could not possibly avoid.
1968 Illustr. London News 13 Jan. 24/1 She was in a neurotic state about her beggarly, unkempt condition.
2013 Daily Mirror (Nexis) 1 Feb. 8 He was in such an unkempt state they didn't initially notice the carving on his forehead.
d. Of a place or thing: not cared for or kept in good order; neglected; untidy, scruffy.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > manner of action > carelessness > [adjective] > neglectful > neglected
unlookedc1330
unservedc1350
unasservedc1400
uncherishedc1400
neglect?a1425
unkept?a1425
neglected1570
carelessa1593
neglectful1595
uncared-for1597
untended1598
silenced1609
disregarded1668
colda1701
unministereda1744
unfostered1744
unkempt1848
1848 J. R. Lowell Poems 2nd Ser. 168 O'er yon low wall, which guards one unkempt zone, Where vines, and weeds, and scrub-oaks intertwine.
1867 D. G. Mitchell Rural Stud. 1 A wild, unkempt, slatternly farm.
1879 W. H. Dixon Royal Windsor II. xx. 207 Their filthy habits and unkempt attire.
1918 Harness Oct. 14/1 Slip-shod practices of arrangement, old fixtures and unkempt shelves and floors are no longer overlooked by visitors.
1957 M. McCrosson Bell & River viii. 83 Before them was the unkempt and restless city reaching as far as eye could see.
2003 T. Griggs Rogue's Wedding viii. 79 The other fellow with the unkempt and shoddy footwear was clearly lazy and suspect.
2. figurative. Lacking elegance or refinement; unsophisticated; uncouth, crude. Cf. incompt adj., uncombed adj. 2.
a. Of language or literary style.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > inelegance > [adjective]
wanmola1325
rudea1393
lewdc1425
rustyc1425
unpolisheda1450
roidc1485
inelegant1509
gross1513
rough?1520
barbarous1526
ineloquent1532
inconcinnate1534
crabby1550
crabbed1561
uneloquent1565
unelegant1570
unkempt1579
unfiled1590
illiterate1598
unconceived1599
aliterate1624
incompta1628
scabbed1630
uncombed1633
uncompt1633
uncouth1694
coarse1699
slatternly1783
crude1786
warty1822
stumbling1859
1579 E. Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Nov. 51 To well I wote..howe my rymes bene rugged and vnkempt.
1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene iii. x. sig. Mm5 Thy offers base I greatly loth, And eke thy words vncourteous and vnkempt.
1606 N. Baxter Sir Philip Sydneys Ouránia sig. D2 Our Spokes beene blunt,..Vnable in Mysteries to know the sooth; Vnkempt, vnpolished, ignorant, lewde.
a1630 S. Page Godly Expos. Lords Prayer (1631) 29 Neither courting with elegancies of wit and speech, nor slighting with vnkempt and homely rusticity.
1879 Christian Union 17 Dec. 520/1 Roughly fitted to the unkempt words, there is a rhythmic swing..to such tunes.
1885 Outing Feb. 361/1 Our venerable Walt Whitman..has dashed his unkempt songs with a dew as American as that of Helicon was Greek.
1908 E. W. Olson et al. Hist. Swedes of Illinois I. xiii. 811 Malmquist is a writer of bristling and unkempt verse as shown in a volume appropriately entitled ‘Törnen och Tistlar’.
1917 H. Jackson Let. 22 July in R. St. J. Parry Henry Jackson OM (1926) ii. 132 Does it not surprize you that Marcus Aurelius writes such unkempt Greek?
2014 Sc. Daily Mail (Nexis) 19 Sept. Rather than dwell on..sporadic outbursts of unkempt language and belligerence on social media [etc.].
b. Of manners, disposition, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > [adjective] > ill-mannered > unrefined
boistousc1300
untheweda1325
uplandisha1387
unaffiled1390
rudea1393
knavishc1405
peoplisha1425
clubbedc1440
blunt1477
lob?1507
robust1511
borel1513
carterly1519
clubbish1530
rough?1531
rustical?1532
incondite1539
agrestc1550
rusticc1550
brute1555
lobcocka1556
loutisha1556
carterlike1561
boorish1562
ruggedc1565
lobbish1567
loutlike1567
sowish1570
clownish1581
unrefined1582
impolished1583
homespun1590
transalpinea1592
swaddish1593
unpolished1594
untutored1595
swabberly1596
tartarous1602
porterly1603
lobcocked1606
lob-like1606
cluster-fisted1611
agrestic1617
inurbane1623
unelevated1627
incult1628
unbrushed1640
vulgar1643
unhewed1644
unsmooth1648
hirsute1658
loutardly1658
unhewn1659
roughsome?c1660
sordid1668
inhumanea1680
coarse1699
brutal1709
ramgunshoch1721
tramontane1740
uncouth1740
no-nationa1756
unurbane1760
turnipy1792
rudas1802
common1804
cubbish1819
clodhopping1828
vulgarian1833
cloddish1844
unkempt1846
bush1851
vulgarish1860
rodney1866
crude1876
ignorant1886
yobby1910
nekulturny1932
oikish1959
yobbish1966
ocker1972
down and dirty1977
1846 Weekly Suppl. Liverpool Mercury 15 May 1/2 Within our own borders are rising the elements of a barbarism as unkempt and rude as can be found among the clay-eaters.
1861 J. Brown Horæ Subs. 2nd Ser. 370 In that formidable and unkempt nature..lay the delicacy..of a gentleman.
1941 W. J. Cash Mind of South (1991) i. iii. 70 In every degree the masses took on, under their slouch, a sort of unkempt politeness and ease of port.
2009 Washington Post (Nexis) 17 Nov. a31 Palin's unconventional trajectory and unkempt mind are seen as authentic.
Derivatives
unˈkemptly adv.
ΚΠ
1896 New Outlook 22 Aug. 332/1 His kinswoman, unkemptly befrizzled as to the hair, betrimmed and soiled as to the gown..rose from the piano-stool and gave him effusive greeting.
1902 Acad. & Lit. 17 May 507/1 Hampstead Heath was unkemptly beautiful.
2015 Drogheda Independent (Nexis) 8 July 92 You see fields of plum tomatoes, brilliantly red, unkemptly growing across the ground.
unˈkemptness n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > disorder > confusion or disorder > untidiness > [noun]
undaftiness1555
slutterya1586
messiness1836
unneatness1836
untidiness1845
slip-sloppery1848
unkemptness1856
mussiness1869
untrimmedness1883
streelishness1936
1856 Claude de Vesci II. xxxii. 143 He could not go and knock at the door..in all the unkemptness of a twenty-hours' journey.
1900 Scribner's Mag. Sept. 297/2 The foul unkemptness of the natives.
2008 J. T. Wreford Working with Spirit vii. 181 The dusty streets and general unkemptness exuded the familiar aura of urban decay.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.?a1439