distasteful

comparative more distasteful · superlative most distasteful · alternative distastefull

1. Having a bad or foul taste.

   Near-synonym: unpalatable

   1 more example

   The food had very distasteful flavour.

   Synonyms: unpalatable

2. figurativelyUnpleasant.

   Near-synonym: unpalatable

   3 more examples

   Scrubbing the floors was a distasteful duty to perform.

   He imbitters not a diſtaſtfull meſſage to a forrein Prince by his indiſcretion in delivering it.

   1642, Thomas Fuller, “The Good Herald”, in The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams, […], →OCLC, book II, paragraph 2, page 142

   All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. […] Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connection—or rather as a transition from the subject that had started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, pages 198–199

   Synonyms: unpalatable

3. Offensive.

   distasteful language

   1 more example

   AIDS is primarily a sexually transmitted disease and to not focus on the documented routes of transmission — however distasteful they may be to some legislators — is an ineffective and bigoted means of education by any standards.

   1987 December 27, Kenneth J. Trask, “Stop Crossing Your Legs, Governor”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 24, page 5