Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use unkempt in a sentence

18 example sentences · adjective

Unkempt means uncombed, dishevelled. Example: “The unkempt young man had a certain slackerly charm.”

Examples of unkempt by meaning

adjectiveUncombed, dishevelled.

  • He was a queer shoot, again, in his unkempt longish hair and slovenly clothes, a sort of very vulgar down-at-heel American in appearance.1916, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “John”, in Twilight in Italy, London: Duckworth and Co. […], →OCLC, pages 211–212
  • Now, upon his whole person, from the crown of his unkempt head down to his broken, dusty boots, there yet clung that air of jaunty, devil-may-care rakishness.1910, Jeffery Farnol, chapter 3, in The Broad Highway

More sentences with unkempt

  • The unkempt young man had a certain slackerly charm.From the entry slackerly
  • There, in all his unkempt glory, stood Bruce Arians, the Gobblers’ backup quarterback for years.2021 February 5, Andy Bitter, “Bruce Arians’ Virginia Tech beginnings: Big hair, bartending and the wishbone”, in The Athletic, New York…. From the entry disheveledness
  • They all looked dirty and unkempt, the girls with long greasy hair, theboys ditto, two with sideburns.2014, Dell Shannon, Unexpected Death. From the entry underbrow
  • His voice was hoarse and his unkempt head only added to its grewsome quality.1900, Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie. From the entry grewsome
  • Unkempt, in threadbare clothes, with holed shoes and sun-cured hide, my costume is permanent: the traveler, the man from far away.2014 December, Paul Salopek, “Blessed. Cursed. Claimed. On Foot through the Holy Lands”, in National Geographic, Washington, D.C.…. From the entry threadbare
  • Whether or not his shambling, unkempt, poiseless figure was the domicile of an immortal soul, was matter for question.2008, Richard Sill Holmes, The Maid of Honor. From the entry poiseless
  • The Garden of Weeden sits in the corner of a parking lot and could easily be mistaken for just an unkempt shamble of bushes.2024 July 31, Leigh Walden, “Anchorage Museum bike tour helps riders discover the city’s secret gardens”, in Alaska Public Media, United…. From the entry Garden of Weeden
  • Even out of drag, she looks like a storybook witch, dressed in all black with big Gucci sunglasses and unkempt orange hair.2023 January 20, Brock Colyar, “The Name on Everybody’s Lips Is Jinkxie”, in Vulture, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2023. From the entry theydy
  • Knee-high grass in overgrown gardens, clorty curtains, and a general unkempt, down at heel feel gave lie to the notion of community spirit.2022 November 1, Jim Spence, “The Kirkton I remember is gone – but there are still too many good folk to let rioting neds win”, in The…. From the entry clorty
  • That's why mob wives appear so unkempt and disheveled when accompanying their men to court—it's a cultivated look meant to underscore their fidelity.2015 February 20, Roberto Saviano, “The Complex Role of Women in the Italian Mob”, in VICE, archived from the original on 24 Feb 2024. From the entry mob wife
  • Some possible deselectors: Males wearing their hair too long or with sideburns may be viewed as messy, unkempt or failing to keep current.1991, E. Patricia Birsner, Mid-career job hunting: official handbook of the Forty Plus Club. From the entry deselector
  • One of the intruders, a mustachioed bug-eyed man with unkempt long hair, looked over the woman and asked for money and jewelry.1988, Jay Robert Nash, Murder among the rich and famous, →ISBN. From the entry mustachioed
  • Unkempt, bearded to the eyes, there he stood clutching his shapeless old cabbage-tree, in mud-stained jumper and threadbare smalls—the very spit of the unsuccessful digger.1917, Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix, Echo Library, published 2007, page 31. From the entry smalls
  • More specifically, animals in the highest dose group had definable clinical signs on day two, decreased activity, anterior abdominal matting of haircoat, and an unkempt appearance.2015 July 6, “Susceptibility of Marmosets ( Callithrix jacchus ) to Monkeypox Virus: A Low Dose Prospective Model for Monkeypox and…. From the entry haircoat
  • He wears the standard checked shirt of the Kiwi bloke over a T-shirt and jeans, his hair is longish and unkempt, and he is generally a bit scruffy.2012, Sue Abel, “Postfeminism Meets Hegemonic Masculinities: Young People Read the ‘Knowing Wink’ in Advertising”, in Karen Ross, editor…. From the entry bloke
  • The twelve-year-old boys showed preference for aggressiveness, boisterousness, and unkemptness, but by the age of fifteen, the trait tidy or unkempt had become reversed and tidyness showed a positive value.1966, Mary Shaw Ryan, Clothing; a Study in Human Behavior, page 264. From the entry tidyness

Meaning of unkempt

  1. adjective Uncombed, dishevelled.
  2. adjective Disorderly; untidy; messy; not kept up.
  3. adjective Rough; unpolished.

Full definition of unkempt

Questions about unkempt in a sentence

How do you use unkempt in a sentence?
Unkempt is used as an adjective. For example: “The unkempt young man had a certain slackerly charm.”
What is a short sentence with unkempt?
“The unkempt young man had a certain slackerly charm.”
What does unkempt mean?
Unkempt means uncombed, dishevelled.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unkempt (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use unkempt in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/unkempt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.