UNOBTRUSIVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unobtrusive mean? 

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

1. not obtrusive or undesirably noticeable

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNOBTRUSIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not obtrusive or undesirably noticeable

Context example:

a quiet, unobtrusive life of self-denial

Similar:

unnoticeable (not noticeable; not drawing attention)

Derivation:

unobtrusiveness (the quality of not sticking out in an unwelcome way)

 Context examples 

I think we shall have another look at it in an unobtrusive way.

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

She saw only that he was quiet and unobtrusive, and she liked him for it.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Know, that in the course of your future life you will often find yourself elected the involuntary confidant of your acquaintances' secrets: people will instinctively find out, as I have done, that it is not your forte to tell of yourself, but to listen while others talk of themselves; they will feel, too, that you listen with no malevolent scorn of their indiscretion, but with a kind of innate sympathy; not the less comforting and encouraging because it is very unobtrusive in its manifestations.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Hosts loved to detain the dry lawyer, when the light-hearted and loose-tongued had already their foot on the threshold; they liked to sit a while in his unobtrusive company, practising for solitude, sobering their minds in the man’s rich silence after the expense and strain of gaiety.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Colonel Brandon's delicate, unobtrusive enquiries were never unwelcome to Miss Dashwood.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Elinor paid her every quiet and unobtrusive attention in her power; and she would have tried to sooth and tranquilize her still more, had not Marianne entreated her, with all the eagerness of the most nervous irritability, not to speak to her for the world.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)