UNSAFE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unsafe mean? 

• UNSAFE (adjective)
  The adjective UNSAFE has 3 senses:

1. lacking in security or safety

2. involving or causing danger or risk; liable to hurt or harm

3. not safe from attack

  Familiarity information: UNSAFE used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNSAFE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking in security or safety

Synonyms:

insecure; unsafe

Context example:

an insecure future

Similar:

precarious; shaky (not secure; beset with difficulties)

unguaranteed; unsecured (without financial security)

Also:

unprotected (lacking protection or defense)

dangerous; unsafe (involving or causing danger or risk; liable to hurt or harm)

vulnerable (susceptible to attack)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Involving or causing danger or risk; liable to hurt or harm

Synonyms:

dangerous; unsafe

Context example:

unemployment reached dangerous proportions

Similar:

chanceful; chancy; dicey; dodgy (of uncertain outcome; especially fraught with risk)

treacherous; unreliable (dangerously unstable and unpredictable)

self-destructive; suicidal (dangerous to yourself or your interests)

parlous; perilous; precarious; touch-and-go (fraught with danger)

on the hook (caught in a difficult or dangerous situation)

mordacious (biting or given to biting)

insidious (intended to entrap)

hazardous; risky; wild (involving risk or danger)

desperate ((of persons) dangerously reckless or violent as from urgency or despair)

breakneck (moving at very high speed)

Also:

insecure; unsafe (lacking in security or safety)

vulnerable (susceptible to attack)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Not safe from attack

Synonyms:

insecure; unsafe

Similar:

vulnerable (susceptible to attack)

 Context examples 

Unsafe! Oh, lord! What is there in that?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It found that 20 per cent of food samples it analysed between 2013 and 2015 qualified as unsafe for human intake due to high pesticide levels.

(Pesticides blamed for rise in colon cancer deaths, SciDev.Net)

Come, come, cried Emma, feeling this to be an unsafe subject, I must beg you not to talk of the sea.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

If they fit, these devices give you support, but if they don't fit, they can be uncomfortable and unsafe.

(Mobility Aids, NIH)

Researchers found significant differences on all those measures between those who breathed clean air and those exposed to pollution levels deemed unsafe.

(The Surprising Link between Air Pollution, Alzheimer’s Disease, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A device designed to prevent malfunction, unsafe, or unauthorized operation of a device or system.

(Fail-Safe System Device Component, NCI Thesaurus)

Unsafe as was his present position, he was loath to forsake it for the more unsafe position on the halyards.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But all these tokens of past grandeur were miserably decayed and dirty; rot, damp, and age, had weakened the flooring, which in many places was unsound and even unsafe.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

These problems can include: • Cuts, broken bones, sprains, and strains • Loss of limbs • Repetitive motion disorders • Hearing problems caused by exposure to noise • Vision problems • Illness caused by breathing, touching, or swallowing unsafe substances • Illness caused by exposure to radiation • Exposure to germs in health care settings

(Occupational Health, NIH)

To begin without knowing that at such a time there will be the means of marrying, I hold to be very unsafe and unwise, and what I think all parents should prevent as far as they can.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)