Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Lack of refinement or polish.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state or character of being inelegant; want of elegance or refinement; lack of any quality required by good taste.
- noun That which is inelegant or ungraceful: as, inelegances of style.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The quality of being inelegant; lack of elegance or grace; lack of refinement, beauty, or polish in language, composition, or manners.
- noun Anything inelegant.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The state or quality of being
inelegant ; lack ofgrace ,refinement ,beauty , orpolish inlanguage ,composition , ormanners .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the quality of lacking refinement and good taste
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I find it funny that for you, Winter is an "inelegance" - I've lived in Chicago for a year and I know EXACTLY what you mean, what with not being able to leave the house without looking like a puff-ball and still be freezing only to remove the layers of puff and be covered in feathers from your jacket!
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Bien narrer is an object of their study; and though they sometimes carry it to affectation, they never sink into inelegance, which is much the worst extreme of the two.
Letters to his son on The Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman 2005
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'Bien narrer' is an object of their study; and though they sometimes carry it to affectation, they never sink into inelegance, which is much the worst extreme of the two.
Complete Project Gutenberg Earl of Chesterfield Works Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield 1733
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'Bien narrer' is an object of their study; and though they sometimes carry it to affectation, they never sink into inelegance, which is much the worst extreme of the two.
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman, 1751 Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield 1733
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* Got my project 5.9, with a lot of thrash and inelegance.
she's got to go away... ace_cub_reportr 2010
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“The legitimacy of the prepositional ending in literary English must be uncompromisingly maintained; in respect of elegance or inelegance, every example must be judged not by any arbitrary rule, but on its own merits …”
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"Really?" she said, already regretting her helpless inelegance.
Eclipse Beate Sigriddaughter 2011
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Mr. McGuire, now in his 23rd year at '21,' seems to lament the new leniency, and the inelegance of it all.
Jacket (Not) Required Steve Garbarino 2011
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This document, along with all it's stylistic failings and its imponderable inelegance, is presented before the ire of public with the expectation of out and out derision.
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My guess would be that her headmaster born in the late 16th century, no doubt, when men were men and rules were rules rapped her on her noggin for inelegance at some crucial point in her development, and voilà!
Comments
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