unkempt
Valid in Scrabble
- Scrabble points
- 15
- Words With Friends
- 19
- Letters
- 7
/ˌʌnˈkɛmpt/
(UK)
Definition of unkempt
3 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included
adj
-
Of hair, uncombed, dishevelled.
“He was a queer shoot, again, in his unkempt longish hair and slovenly clothes, a sort of very vulgar down-at-heel American in appearance.”
“Men on cycles, lean-faced, unkempt, scorched along every country lane, shouting of unhoped deliverance, shouting to gaunt, staring figures of despair.”
“Now, upon his whole person, from the crown of his unkempt head down to his broken, dusty boots, there yet clung that air of jaunty, devil-may-care rakishness.”
See all 3 definitions Show less
adj
-
Of hair, uncombed, dishevelled.
“He was a queer shoot, again, in his unkempt longish hair and slovenly clothes, a sort of very vulgar down-at-heel American in appearance.”
“Men on cycles, lean-faced, unkempt, scorched along every country lane, shouting of unhoped deliverance, shouting to gaunt, staring figures of despair.”
“Now, upon his whole person, from the crown of his unkempt head down to his broken, dusty boots, there yet clung that air of jaunty, devil-may-care rakishness.”
-
(broadly, figuratively)Disorderly; untidy; messy; not kept up.
“unkempt bedroom”
“And his egotism and conceit were not to be borne; and then he was both tawdry and dirty in his person; more greasily, mattedly unkempt than even a really successful pianist has any right to be, even in the best society.”
“The Countess had liked Elsa from the first moment when she saw her, ragged, unkempt and forlorn, among the lowering, suspicious men-at-arms in the courtyard, and now that she knew the dangers and the privations the girl had braved for the sake of Wilhelm, the affectionate heart of Beatrix found ample room for the motherless Elsa.”
- (figuratively)Rough; unpolished.
Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.
Etymology
From earlier unkembed, unkemmed, from Middle English unkempt (“uncombed”), equivalent to un- + kempt. Compare Old Norse úkembdr (uncombed; unkempt"; > Icelandic ókembdur), German ungekämmt (“unkempt”), Dutch ongekamd. More at kemb.
Words you can make from unkempt
53 playable · top: KEMPT (13 pts)
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21 words2-letter words
13 wordsFind your best play with unkempt
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