untimely

comparative untimelier · comparative more untimely · superlative untimeliest · superlative most untimely

1. At an inopportune time.

   untimely remarks

   Synonyms: inopportune · Antonyms: timely, opportune, on time, to time, in time, on time, prompt, punctual

2. Early; premature.

   an untimely death

   2 more examples

   The heroes of literary as well as civil history have been very often no less remarkable for what they have suffered, than for what they have atchieved^([sic]); and volumes have been written only to enumerate the miseries of the learned, and relate their unhappy lives, and untimely deaths.

   c. 1779–81, Samuel Johnson, “Savage”, in The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, volume 3, published 1794

   Untimely blossom! Poor, impatient thing, / ⁠That, starting rashly from the sheltering mould, / ⁠Bravest the peevish wind and sullen cold, / ⁠Mistaking thine own ardors for the spring

   1898, Florence Earle Coates, Before the Hour

   Synonyms: early, premature, anticipatory, early, forward, hasty, precipitate, precocious · Antonyms: late, tardy, backward, behindhand, belated, late, lated, overdue

comparative more untimely · superlative most untimely

1. Prematurely.

   Tell thee, Macduffe was from his Mothers womb / Untimely ript.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene viii], page 151

   2 more examples

   They light fires under fruit trees to keep the fruit from falling untimely.

   1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 10, page 215

   Couldst thou go from us, in thy beauteous June, / Leaving a sense of joy untimely perished, / ⁠Of music stilled too soon?

   1916, Florence Earle Coates, In Memory of Caroline Furness Jayne