unconscionable

comparative more unconscionable · superlative most unconscionable

1. Not conscionable; unscrupulous and lacking principles or conscience.

   When Roger assured him that prospects "looked very good" for a retrial, even a reversal of the verdict, since Roger had discovered "unconscionable errors" in the trial, Jackson grunted in bemusement and smiled with half his mouth.

   2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age: A Romance, paperback edition, Fourth Estate, page 364

   1 more example

   In a statement on Friday announcing her withdrawal, [Arundhati] Roy, who had been planning to attend a screening of her recently restored 1989 film In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones, called the comments “unconscionable” and feared they had reached “millions of people across the world”.

   2026 February 13, Nadia Khomami, quoting Arundhati Roy, “Arundhati Roy quits Berlin film festival over ‘stay out of politics’ comment”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Synonyms: outrageous, immoral, unethical · Antonyms: conscionable, ethical

2. Excessive, imprudent or unreasonable.

   The effective rate of interest was unconscionable, but not legally usurious.

   2 more examples

   [...] and the agrieved person shall doe more manly, to be extraordinary and singular in claiming the due right whereof he is frustrated, then to piece up his lost contentment by visiting the Stews, or stepping to his neighbours bed, which is the common shift in this mis-fortune, or els by suffering his usefull life to wast away and be lost under a secret affliction of an unconscionable size to humane strength.

   1643, John Milton, Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce

   He amazed the pretty hostess by refusing breakfast; however, flinging down double the amount of her already unconscionable bill, consoled her for his want of appetite.

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Past”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 84

   Synonyms: shocking, excessive, egregious · Antonyms: fair, reasonable