un-American

comparative more un-American · superlative most un-American · alternative unamerican · alternative unAmerican

1. Contrary to the principles, institutions or interests of the United States; anti-American.

   Besides, how can you talk about church politics? It would certainly be anti-Catholic and might easily become un-American.

   1948 August, Aldous Huxley, Ape and Essence, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC

   5 more examples

   In 1959 ex-President Truman, never one to mince words, called the Committee the “most un-American thing in the country today.” Mr. Goodman strongly disagrees: “…unless one is prepared to blank out large and significant patches of our history, there is nothing un-American about the Un-American Activities Committee.”

   1968 July 7, Telford Taylor, “Who's Un-American Now?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Surely there is nothing strange or new or threatening about such a platform. It will distress only those who have the essentially un-American view that change itself is frightening and should be avoided at all costs.

   1972, Mike Gravel, Citizen Power: A People's Platform, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, →ISBN, page xii

   "What was done to our country was wrong and unpatriotic and un-American and nobody has been held to account," he later told the Guardian. "There is a real patriotism underneath the best of my music but it is a critical, questioning and often angry patriotism."

   2012 February 17, Fiachra Gibbons, quoting Bruce Springsteen, “Bruce Springsteen: ‘What was done to my country was un-American’”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2022

   It is an awful fact that the most powerful man in America may also represent the worst of America. In a way, Trump is the un-American president.

   2018 March 19, Charles M. Blow, “Trump: The Un-American President”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 09 Nov 2020

   “As an American, I was disgusted,” she said. “It was unpatriotic. It was un-American. We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie.”

   2022 June 28, Luke Broadwater, Michael S. Schmidt, quoting Cassidy Hutchinson, “Trump Urged Armed Supporters to Capitol, White House Aide Testifies”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 31 Aug 2022

2. USinformalIncivil, immoral.
3. Unrelated to America or the U.S.; untypical of U.S. mores or habits; non-American, not American.

   [About British filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock:] It’s not often addressed in criticism, but Hitchcock was un-American enough to dwell on the uneasiness or the unreliability of heroes.

   2017, David Thomson, "Rebecca: Welcome to the Haunted House", The Criterion Collection