Meanings
comparative unfuller · superlative unfullest
- Not full or complete; incomplete, imperfect.
[T]h’vn-full Harmony / Of vn-even Hammers, beating diverſly, / VVakens the tunes that his [Tubal-cain’s] ſvveet numbery ſoule / Yer birth (ſom think) learn’d of the vvarbling Pole.
1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[Du Bartas His Second Weeke, […]. Adam. […].] The Handi-crafts. The IIII. Part of the I. Day of the II. Week.”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and Workes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Humfrey Lownes [and are to be sold by Arthur Iohnson […]], published 1611, →OCLC, page 290
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*pleh₁-“to fill”
- Old Englishful
- Middle Englishunfulle“incomplete”
- Englishunfull
From Middle English unfulle (“incomplete”), from un- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + ful (“filled to capacity, full; complete, whole”) (from Old English ful, full (“filled, full; complete, entire”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)). The English word is analysable as un- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + full.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Indo-European
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with unfull
All rhymes →Cite this entry
unfull. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unfull
“unfull.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unfull. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unfull,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unfull.
Source: unfull on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.