Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A disagreeable remark, situation, or act.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Want of pleasantry; absence or the opposite of cheerfulness, humor, or gaiety; disagreeableness.
  • noun An unpleasant occurrence; especially, a slight quarrel or falling out.
  • noun A discomfort.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun rare Want of pleasantry.
  • noun A state of disagreement; a falling out.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun That which is unpleasant.
  • noun An unpleasant remark, behaviour, etc.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

unpleasant +‎ -ry

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Examples

  • Caught 'em red handed and threatened them with certain unpleasantry if I caught them again, but this was no deterrent ... most of 'em are way too far gone to even remember who it is they are stealing from, one day to the next.

    For bottle return mess, a new idea (Jack Bog's Blog) 2009

  • I've waited a fortnight to see some live off-the-ball unpleasantry (in HD as well), and now they're showing me ...

    Tim Dowling's World Cup diary 2010

  • The unpleasantry of a cheap safety valve, for instance, or of an over confident BP executive, an under zealous regulator with the easy answer that those that work hard and succeed in business or in government are capable of -- more or less -- doing the right thing.

    Stephen Gyllenhaal: Roots, Oil, and Real Change 2010

  • He referred to the war as an “unpleasantry of life.”

    Bungalowing Iraq 2007

  • He referred to the war as an “unpleasantry of life.”

    Bungalowing Iraq 2007

  • Remorse for past misdeeds and follies Harry sincerely felt, when he found himself a prisoner in that dismal lock-up house, and wrath and annoyance at the idea of being subjected to the indignity of arrest; but the present unpleasantry he felt sure could only be momentary.

    The Virginians 2006

  • Based on 40 years of work as an independent correspondent abroad, I fully agree with American colleague Craig Merrihue who wrote: 'Experience and education has taught me, like many others, that the bottom line to politics is money and murder, an unpleasantry completely ignored by professional journalism, which is doomed to therefore never approach the most salient truths.

    Our Man in Holland - the Foreign Press Foundation (FPF) Writes about the world's Economic Hit People! Michael Caddell 2005

  • Based on 40 years of work as an independent correspondent abroad, I fully agree with American colleague Craig Merrihue who wrote: 'Experience and education has taught me, like many others, that the bottom line to politics is money and murder, an unpleasantry completely ignored by professional journalism, which is doomed to therefore never approach the most salient truths.

    Archive 2005-03-01 Michael Caddell 2005

  • Punishment is usually used to describe a process whereby a person found guilty of a crime is forced to endure unpleasantry in order to persuade the individual to change their way.

    If Mr. Williams is killed, nothing will be better for it. 2005

  • I understand there has been an unfortunate unpleasantry.

    Sins of Two Fathers Denis Hamill 2003

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