inglorious

comparative more inglorious · superlative most inglorious

1. Ignominious; disgraceful.First known use 1573

   [H]e cast about in his mind for a way to beat a retreat not too inglorious.

   1906 May–October, Jack London, “The Famine”, in White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 3 (The Gods of the Wild), page 173

   3 more examples

   Oh inglorious league: / Shall we vpon the footing of our land, / Send fayre-play-orders, and make comprimiſe, / Inſinuation, parley, and baſe truce / To Armes Inuaſiue?

   c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 18, column 2

   Resolved to pursue no inglorious career, he turned his eyes toward the East, as affording scope for his spirit of enterprise.

   1831 October 31, Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, chapter VI, in Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus (Standard Novels; IX), 3rd edition, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 54

   The last occasion on which the Kaiser [Wilhelm II] used this train was for an inglorious journey into Holland towards the end of the 1914 war. He spent the night in it at Eysden [Eijsden], while the Queen of the Netherlands and a hastily summoned Cabinet debated what to do with him.

   1945 September and October, C. Hamilton Ellis, “Royal Trains—V”, in Railway Magazine, page 251

   Synonyms: scornworthy, shameful, vile, abject, filthy, base, beggarly, blameworthy · Antonyms: glorious, admirable, allowable, commendable, creditable, estimable, glorious, honorable

2. archaicNot famous; obscure.First known use 1591

   Great Julius [Caesar], whom now all the world admires / The more he grew in years, the more inflam’d / With glory, wept that he had liv’d ſo long / Inglorious: but thou yet art not too late.

   1671, John Milton, “The Third Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 56, lines 39–42

   Synonyms: gloriless, ungloried, unsung, fameless, gloriless, nameless, nonfamous, obscure · Antonyms: glorious, bait, fabled, famed, famous, famoused, iconic, irrecondite