UNKEMPT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unkempt mean? 

• UNKEMPT (adjective)
  The adjective UNKEMPT has 2 senses:

1. not neatly combed

2. not properly maintained or cared for

  Familiarity information: UNKEMPT used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNKEMPT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not neatly combed

Context example:

wild unkempt hair

Similar:

uncombed ((of hair) not combed)

Derivation:

unkemptness (a lack of order and tidiness; not cared for)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not properly maintained or cared for

Context example:

an ukempt appearance

Similar:

untidy (not neat and tidy)

Derivation:

unkemptness (a lack of order and tidiness; not cared for)

 Context examples 

There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and unkempt, staring out at me.

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

His wild eyes, stained cheeks, and unkempt hair all spoke of the sudden blow which had fallen upon the household.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen is a small dog with an unkempt, wiry double coat with shaggy eyebrows, beard and mustache.

(Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen, NCI Thesaurus)

The official received us with a very grave face and showed us into a sitting-room, where an exceedingly unkempt and agitated elderly man, clad in a flannel dressing-gown, was pacing up and down.

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

More tormentors, Buck decided, for they were evil-looking creatures, ragged and unkempt; and he stormed and raged at them through the bars.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

He beamed at us with the old paternal smile, but European science would have been somewhat amazed could they have seen their chosen child, the hope of the future, with his tangled, unkempt head, his bare chest, and his tattered clothes.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Next to him sat Hordle John, and beside him three other rough unkempt fellows with tangled beards and matted hair—free laborers from the adjoining farms, where small patches of freehold property had been suffered to remain scattered about in the heart of the royal demesne.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There were two rough-haired, unkempt horses in the tumble-down stable.

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

Please arrange your thoughts and let me know, in their due sequence, exactly what those events are which have sent you out unbrushed and unkempt, with dress boots and waistcoat buttoned awry, in search of advice and assistance.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Collar and shirt bore the grime of a long journey, and the hair bristled unkempt from the well-shaped head.

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