ungain
ungain adjective: ungainly; clumsy or awkward.
Adjective
ungain (comparative more ungain, superlative most ungain)
- ungainly; clumsy or awkward
- she take th ' ungain'st weas she canc. 1607–1611, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Cupid’s Revenge”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, (please...
- an ungain, dull sort of a body,1786, John Burgoyne, The Heiress
- troublesome or inconvenient
- to know a person if one leaves but a quart in a hogshead, it's two pints too much. That's my notion. But, Sir, that was but an ungain business at 'Squire Monckton's t'other morning. Every body was no-how, as one may say.1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia
Forms of ungain
| comparative | more ungain |
|---|---|
| superlative | most ungain |
Origin of ungain
From Middle English ungain, ungayn, ungein, equivalent to un- + gain (“suitable; convenient”). See ungainly.
Words formed from ungain
Questions about ungain
- What does ungain mean?
- Ungain means ungainly; clumsy or awkward.
- What part of speech is ungain?
- Ungain is an adjective.
Words near ungain in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ungain (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “ungain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ungain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.