unmean

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English

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Etymology 1

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From un- (not) +‎ mean.

Adjective

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unmean (comparative more unmean, superlative most unmean)

  1. (rare) Not mean (all senses).
    • 1999, Martin Scorsese, Peter Brunette, Martin Scorsese: Interviews, page 188:
      The Age of Innocence is based on an Edith Wharton novel and set in the very unmean streets of upper-crust New York, circa 1870.
    • 2008, Sherri Rifkin, LoveHampton, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 247:
      But this whole time, all you've been doing is judging me, making not unmean comments about my new friends, about the guys I'm dating, about how much I drink, go out—everything—as if you don't approve.
    • 2014, Martin Bowman, Battlefield Bombers: Deep Sea Attack, page 8:
      They are so unmean, so just and so kind.
    • 2010, John Lennard, Of Sex and Faerie: Further Essays on Genre Fiction, page 65:
      So the tightrope these unmean men must walk drew taut.
Synonyms
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Etymology 2

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From un- (reverse, opposite) +‎ mean.

Verb

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unmean (third-person singular simple present unmeans, present participle unmeaning, simple past and past participle unmeant)

  1. (rare) To reverse, cancel, or negate what was intentionally communicated.
    • 2007, Ralph Yarrow, Franc Chamberlain, Sacred Theatre, page 114:
      The play works to unmean meaning by a double dislocation. It uses expectation to undermine expectation both of everyday 'reality' and of theatrical genre.
    • 2011, Maria Damon, Postliterary America: From Bagel Shop Jazz to Micropoetries, page 83:
      ... just as Steinian non-sense derives its power to “unmean” from the rigidly semantic context of most discursive forms
    • 2015, CD Reiss, Shuttergirl:
      I'd meant everything I ever said to her, and I didn't know how to unmean it.
Synonyms
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See also

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Anagrams

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