UNFAIR

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does unfair mean? 

• UNFAIR (adjective)
  The adjective UNFAIR has 1 sense:

1. not fair; marked by injustice or partiality or deception

  Familiarity information: UNFAIR used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNFAIR (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not fair; marked by injustice or partiality or deception

Synonyms:

unfair; unjust

Context example:

took an unfair advantage

Similar:

below the belt (disregarding the rules (from the notion of an illegal low blow in boxing))

cheating; dirty; foul; unsporting; unsportsmanlike (violating accepted standards or rules)

raw (brutally unfair or harsh)

Also:

unjust (violating principles of justice)

partial (showing favoritism)

Attribute:

equity; fairness (conformity with rules or standards)

Antonym:

fair (free from favoritism or self-interest or bias or deception; conforming with established standards or rules)

Derivation:

unfairness (an unjust act)

unfairness (injustice by virtue of not conforming with rules or standards)

unfairness (partiality that is not fair or equitable)

 Context examples 

That had given them an unfair advantage; but now that it was off, he would show them.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

The unfair treatment of a person or group based on class or category bias.

(Discrimination, NCI Thesaurus)

Life had been unfair to him.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

This is surely most unfair and ungenerous upon your part.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And now that I understand your question, I must pronounce it to be a very unfair one.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I do not wish to take any unfair advantage, and I beg therefore that you will take some days to consider of your determination.’

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It's absurd and unfair, he had told Ruth weeks before, this objection to talking shop.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Since nearly ten weeks have elapsed, then, and nothing has been heard, it is not unfair to suppose that for some reason the treaty has not reached them.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On one hand, Saturn and Pluto will oppose the moon, a testament to the force that a VIP may be applying toward you that seems unfair.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

After a few moments' chat, John Dashwood, recollecting that Fanny was yet uninformed of her sister's being there, quitted the room in quest of her; and Elinor was left to improve her acquaintance with Robert, who, by the gay unconcern, the happy self-complacency of his manner while enjoying so unfair a division of his mother's love and liberality, to the prejudice of his banished brother, earned only by his own dissipated course of life, and that brother's integrity, was confirming her most unfavourable opinion of his head and heart.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)