UNAWARES

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does unawares mean? 

• UNAWARES (adverb)
  The adverb UNAWARES has 3 senses:

1. without forethought or plan; inadvertently

2. suddenly and unexpectedly

3. at a disadvantage

  Familiarity information: UNAWARES used as an adverb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNAWARES (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Without forethought or plan; inadvertently

Context example:

came upon the diamond unawares

Sense 2

Meaning:

Suddenly and unexpectedly

Context example:

sorrow comes to all, and to the young it comes with bittered agony because it takes them unawares

Sense 3

Meaning:

At a disadvantage

Synonyms:

short; unawares

Context example:

I was caught short

 Context examples 

It came out quite unawares, quite undesignedly.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

But she slipped away from him, unawares, and ran off towards home; and as the prince followed her, she jumped up into the pigeon-house and shut the door.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Do you suppose any woman in the world was ever taken unawares?

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I know just what I should say, for I've planned it all, so I needn't be taken unawares.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She appeared to be cross-questioning me, attempting to draw from me information unawares.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It takes me quite unawares.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

When Lucy—I call the thing that was before us Lucy because it bore her shape—saw us she drew back with an angry snarl, such as a cat gives when taken unawares; then her eyes ranged over us.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Oh! yes—I do not think I should be easily frightened, because there would be so many people in the house—and besides, it has never been uninhabited and left deserted for years, and then the family come back to it unawares, without giving any notice, as generally happens.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

So he laid himself down, and sleep fell upon him unawares, so that he did not wake up till the clock was striking a quarter to twelve.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

As she grew, her mother began to feel that the Dovecote would be blessed by the presence of an inmate as serene and loving as that which had helped to make the old house home, and to pray that she might be spared a loss like that which had lately taught them how long they had entertained an angel unawares.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)