unkind

What it means

1. Lacking kindness, sympathy, benevolence, gratitude, or similar; cruel, harsh or unjust; ungrateful.First known use mid-14th c.

   Before the day I met you, life was so unkind / But you're the key to my peace of mind

   1967, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, performed by Aretha Franklin

   5 more examples

   Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him! This was the most unkindest cut of all; For when the noble Caesar saw him stab, Ingratitude, more strong than traitors’ arms, Quite vanquish’d him: then burst his mighty heart;

   1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

   Yet was it ne’er my Fate, from thee to find A Deed ungentle, or a Word unkind: When others curst the Auth’ress of their Woe, Thy Pity check’d my Sorrows in their Flow:

   1720, Homer, “Book XXIV”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, volume VI, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 189, lines 968–971

   Nobody meant to be unkind, but nobody put themselves out of their way to secure her comfort.

   1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter II, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 24

   Despite the bursitis, Dewey got in a good round of golf, though his cautious game inspired a reporter to make one of the week′s unkindest remarks: “He plays golf like he plays politics — straight down the middle, and short.”

   1950 July 3, “Politicians Without Politics”, in Life, page 16

   We had to learn that to refuse such gifts, which represented serious sacrifice, was more unkind than to accept them.

   1974, Laurence William Wylie, Village in the Vaucluse, 3rd edition, page 175

2. obsoleteNot kind; contrary to nature or type; unnatural.First known use 13th c.

   Crowes will not feed their yong til 9. daies old, Because their vnkind colour makes them doubt Them to be theirs;

   1617, John Davies, Wits Bedlam, London, Epigram 116

   1 more example

   […] A Feauer is an vnkinde heate, that commeth out of the heart, and passeth into all the members of the bodye, and grieueth the working of the bodye.

   1582, Stephen Batman, transl., Batman vppon Bartholome His Booke De Proprietatibus Rerum, London, Book 7, Chapter 33

3. obsoleteHaving no race or kindred; childless.

   O, had thy mother borne so hard a mind, She had not brought forth thee, but died unkind.

   1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC

In a sentence

Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him! This was the most unkindest cut of all; For when the noble Caesar saw him stab, Ingratitude, more strong than traitors’ arms, Quite vanquish’d him: then burst his mighty heart;

1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

Where it comes from

1. Middle Englishunkynde
2. Englishunkind

Inherited from Middle English unkynde; equivalent to un- + kind.

First known use: mid-14th c.