English Dictionary |
UNJUST
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Dictionary entry overview: What does unjust mean?
• UNJUST (adjective)
The adjective UNJUST has 3 senses:
1. not fair; marked by injustice or partiality or deception
2. violating principles of justice
Familiarity information: UNJUST used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
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)
Derivation:
unjustness (the practice of being unjust or unfair)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Violating principles of justice
Context example:
an unjust accusation
Similar:
actionable (affording grounds for legal action)
wrongful (not just or fair)
Also:
unfair; unjust (not fair; marked by injustice or partiality or deception)
dishonorable; dishonourable (lacking honor or integrity; deserving dishonor)
wrong (contrary to conscience or morality or law)
unrighteous (not righteous)
Antonym:
just (used especially of what is legally or ethically right or proper or fitting)
Derivation:
unjustness (the practice of being unjust or unfair)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Not equitable or fair
Synonyms:
inequitable; unjust
Context example:
inequitable taxation
Derivation:
unjustness (the practice of being unjust or unfair)
Context examples
I don't wish to be unjust or suspicious, but I shouldn't wonder if they never came at all.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Now, is it not unjust, and unlike you, to judge him from what you saw of me the other night?
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He had been used to think her unjust to Jane, and had now great pleasure in marking an improvement.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
If I could wish it for my own sake, I would not do so unjust a thing by the poor girl.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
How can you be so unjust?
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
No motive can excuse the unjust and ungenerous part you acted there.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
They were angry because of the ill treatment they had received and the unjust load.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
But I do assure you that he must be entirely misunderstood, if he can ever appear to say an unjust thing of any woman at all, or an unkind one of me.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
He had imagined himself indifferent, when he had only been angry; and he had been unjust to her merits, because he had been a sufferer from them.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
What a miserable little poltroon had fear, engendered of unjust punishment, made of me in those days!
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Pity without help does little good" (Breton proverb)
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"Better safe than sorry." (Croatian proverb)