unˈgentlemanlike, a. and adv.
[un-1 7 c.]
A. adj.
1. Of character, actions, etc.: Not befitting or natural to a gentleman.
| 1592 Nashe Four Lett. Confuted H 1 b, Neither was I..pincht with any vngentleman-like want, when I inuented Pierce Pennilesse. 1652 Wadsworth tr. Sandoval's Civ. Wars Spain 363 Hee was mightily condemned by all that saw or heard of that ungentleman-like action. 1728 Lett. fr. Fog's Jrnl. 21 Dec. 1/1, I cannot conceive the Cause from whence that base, that unworthy, that Un-Gentleman-like Quality [sc. avarice] should arise. 1800 M. Edgeworth Limerick Gloves iv, Complaining of the ungenerous and ungentleman⁓like behaviour in the grocer. 1884 Macm. Mag. Nov. 12/2 Work just as dirty, and tricks just as ungentleman-like. |
2. Not resembling a gentleman.
| 1718 Free-thinker No. 126, The most Illiberal, Ungentlemanlike, Members of Society. 1749 Chesterfield Lett. 15 May (1774) I. cl. 413 They come home, the unimproved, illiberal, and ungentleman-like creatures, that one daily sees them. 1814 Jane Austen Mansf. Park xli, Ungentlemanlike as he looked. |
B. adv. Not after the fashion of a gentleman.
| 1664 Pepys Diary 14 July, My Lord Chancellor..said that I did most ungentlemanlike with him. 1687 Settle Refl. Dryden 74 Do not deal so unnaturally and ungentleman like, to treat so honourable a man..so rudely. 1823 Scott Quentin D. xxiii, How unkingly, unknightly, ignobly, ungentleman-like, he hath conducted himself towards us. |
Hence unˈgentlemanlikeness.
| 1848 J. H. Newman Loss & Gain i. iv. (1853) 201, I have behaved quite rudely to the Puseyites sometimes, and then been ashamed of my ungentlemanlikeness. |