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UNFORTUNATE
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Dictionary entry overview: What does unfortunate mean?
• UNFORTUNATE (noun)
The noun UNFORTUNATE has 1 sense:
1. a person who suffers misfortune
Familiarity information: UNFORTUNATE used as a noun is very rare.
• UNFORTUNATE (adjective)
The adjective UNFORTUNATE has 3 senses:
1. not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune
2. not auspicious; boding ill
3. unsuitable or regrettable
Familiarity information: UNFORTUNATE used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
A person who suffers misfortune
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Synonyms:
unfortunate; unfortunate person
Hypernyms ("unfortunate" is a kind of...):
individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "unfortunate"):
griever; lamenter; mourner; sorrower (a person who is feeling grief (as grieving over someone who has died))
crier; weeper (a person who weeps)
victim (an unfortunate person who suffers from some adverse circumstance)
subsister; survivor (one who lives through affliction)
diseased person; sick person; sufferer (a person suffering from an illness)
schlimazel; shlimazel ((Yiddish) a very unlucky or inept person who fails at everything)
captive; prisoner (a person who is confined; especially a prisoner of war)
have-not; poor person (a person with few or no possessions)
castaway; Ishmael; outcast; pariah (a person who is rejected (from society or home))
nympholept (a person seized by nympholepsy)
abandoned person (someone for whom hope has been abandoned)
maroon (a person who is stranded (as on an island))
failure; loser; nonstarter; unsuccessful person (a person with a record of failing; someone who loses consistently)
languisher (a person who languishes)
jinx; jonah (a person believed to bring bad luck to those around him)
Job (any long-suffering person who withstands affliction without despairing)
homeless; homeless person (someone unfortunate without housing)
desperate (a person who is frightened and in need of help)
choker (an unfortunate person who is unable to perform effectively because of nervous tension or agitation)
amputee (someone who has had a limb removed by amputation)
Derivation:
unfortunate (not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune
Context example:
an unfortunate night for all concerned
Similar:
abject (most unfortunate or miserable)
black; calamitous; disastrous; fatal; fateful ((of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin)
dispossessed; homeless; roofless (physically or spiritually homeless or deprived of security)
hapless; miserable; misfortunate; pathetic; piteous; pitiable; pitiful; poor; wretched (deserving or inciting pity)
doomed; ill-fated; ill-omened; ill-starred; unlucky (marked by or promising bad fortune)
downtrodden (abused or oppressed by people in power)
infelicitous; unhappy (marked by or producing unhappiness)
regrettable; too bad (deserving regret)
Also:
luckless; unlucky (having or bringing misfortune)
underprivileged (lacking the rights and advantages of other members of society)
unsuccessful (not successful; having failed or having an unfavorable outcome)
Antonym:
fortunate (having unexpected good fortune)
Derivation:
unfortunate (a person who suffers misfortune)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Not auspicious; boding ill
Synonyms:
inauspicious; unfortunate
Similar:
unpromising (unlikely to bring about favorable results or enjoyment)
Attribute:
auspiciousness; propitiousness (the favorable quality of strongly indicating a successful result)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Unsuitable or regrettable
Context example:
an unfortunate speech
Similar:
infelicitous (not appropriate in application; defective)
Context examples
I was only going to observe, that though such unfortunate circumstances do sometimes occur both to men and women, I cannot imagine them to be very frequent.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
It was at this instant that my unfortunate husband entered the room.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Your late wife, sir, was a most unworldly, most unhappy, most unfortunate baby,” returned my aunt, shaking her head at him.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Your indifference, however, towards that unfortunate girl—I must say it, unpleasant to me as the discussion of such a subject may well be—your indifference is no apology for your cruel neglect of her.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
He received letters from editors like the following: About a year ago we were unfortunate enough to refuse your collection of love-poems.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
You were unfortunate in having your life cast in easy places, but you’re developing, and I like you the better for it.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
My unfortunate guest regards me with the tenderest compassion.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
“Don’t drop the instruments, I beg. Your arrest as a suspicious character would be a most unfortunate complication.”
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
My poor Utterson, said he, you are unfortunate in such a client.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
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