unpromise

plural unpromises

1. uncountableusuallyLack of promise; poor prospects; unpromising outlook.

   I had God's promise that he was there to bring us into the land of promises, or unpromises.

   2016, Dr. Minerva Santerre, A Bridge That Hugged Tomorrow

   3 more examples

   So I was a writer of early unpromise. All my stories from the age of twelve until I was at least twenty-two were pretty bad.

   2004, Ray Bradbury, Steven L. Aggelis, Conversations with Ray Bradbury, page 25

   The resulting brew did not smell promising, and the taste more than lived up to the unpromise.

   2009, Liza Dalby, East Wind Melts the Ice: A Memoir Through the Seasons, page 222

   To be sure, scholars have noted that occasionally heroines of the Cinderalla plot, known through folkloric classification as ATU 510, "gain all the time in determination and strength" through their sufferingg and "begin to lose their tag of unpromise and start shaping their lives and futures, at times, not without a little deception.”

   2016, Christine A. Jones, Mother Goose Refigured

present singular third person unpromises · participle present unpromising · participle past unpromised · past unpromised

1. transitiveTo revoke or annul (something promised before).

   It wouldn't be a promise if you could just unpromise it.

   2024, Sylvia Bishop ·, On Silver Tides

   2 more examples

   Promises are no fetters: with that tongue Thy promise past, unpromise it again.

   1605, George Chapman, All Fools

   "But I promised Annie we'd take them, Joseph." " Well , you're just going to have to unpromise her!"

   2015, Ruth Price, Before An Amish Country Calamity