ungreen

ungreen adjective: not green.

Adjective

ungreen (not comparable)

(uncommon) Not green.
- The ungreen emerald ring went round and round, and the ungreen emerald earrings swung: Thelma was working at the rim of her glass, too.1970, John McIntosh, The Stonefish, page 193
- The ungreen virescent exhibits a low rate of true photosynthesis (on both a leaf fresh weight and chlorophyll basis) compared to wild-type.1972, Dissertation Abstracts International, page 76
Having little or no vegetation or plant matter.
- It is funny for the seaside, it looks such a “house-ified' place, it's an ungreen seaside.1903, Society for Psychical Research, Proceedings - Volume 17, page 241
- The same article includes a recipe for a rather ungreen salad: Salad of mixed meat2008, Jim Chevallier, Après Moi, Le Dessert: A French Eighteenth Century Model Meal, page 25
Lacking sap or vitality; desiccated.
- The sheriff of Norfolk had power to search for and seize any "sound, dry, and ungreen" wood which he could find, and send the same to the Fletchers or arrow makers to be made into sheaves, tipped with steel heads according to a pattern in the Tower of London.1875, Charles John Palmer, The Perlustration of Great Yarmouth, with Gorleston and Southtown, page 77
- She scorched the ungreen fields, starving men of the yields of each expected crop;1981, Euripides, Helen, page 71
Environmentally unfriendly; harmful to or inconsiderate of the environment.
- There are green products packaged in ungreen ways. Ungreen products wrapped in green ways. Green products from ungreen companies. And green companies making ungreen products.1991, 1992 Earth Journal: Environmental Almanac and Resource Directory, page 305
- In other words, they are very unlikely to cut down on purchases in a particularly ungreen product category in order to increase their purchasing in a particularly green one.1992, Dominik Koechlin, Kaspar Müller, Green Business Opportunities: The Profit Potential, page 71

Verb

ungreen (third-person singular simple present ungreens, present participle ungreening, simple past and past participle ungreened)

To expose to air after dyeing in indigo so that the greenish color fades away.
- When necessary to air and ungreen, by drawing the pulley the frame rises, and the cloth drains into the vat.1854, James Burch Robb, A Collection of Patent Cases Decided in the Supreme and Circuit Courts, from Their Organization to the Year 1850, page 213
- After the expiration of this time, suspend a second lock of wool for ten or fifteen minutes in the Vat; when it comes out, it should be of a deeper shade, and more like a grass green than the first lock was: it will take a little over five minutes to ungreen it, when it will assume almost a Middle...1861, Richard Gibson, The Art of Dyeing All Colors on Raw Cotton Or Cotton Waste, for the Purpose of Working with Raw Wool, page 206
To make or become familiar with and adept in handling a new environment.
- Freshmen are called greens, and a ceremony was (and perhaps is) used in ungreening them, and admitting them to their full academical privileges.1850, Charles Cuthbert Southey, The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey - Volume 5, page 227
- The period of “ungreening” is closed by a solemn meeting where the novitiates are addressed by the president of the Corporation.1908, The Hartford Seminary Record - Volume 18, page 289
To change from green to some other color, as occurs with leaves in the autumn.
- Harvests are congratulated She is pleased with the sight, Sweet hard apples and Small ungreening leaves.2005, Kevin McGrath, Flyer, page 47
- We watched the ungreening of the trees as they put on their fall wardrobes of bright colors.2005, Judith Freeland, Try to Remember
To urbanize or become less environmentally friendly.
- John Robinson, in “Highways and Our Environment," complains that the highway system not only has disfigured our countryside by slapping down acres of concrete that threatens to ungreen America, but also carries an increasing number of cars that further befoul the environment by thrusting more...1971, City - Volume 5, page 50
- “Socioeconomic threshold” refers to a combination of societal and economic acceptable levels of the six factors to measure purpose accomplishment—in effect, how much “ungreening” would be tolerated by the citizenry before there was a demand for action.2004, Gerald Nadler, William Chandon, Smart Questions, page 256

ungreen meaning in Tamil

ungreen in Tamil

பசுமையற்ற

Examples of ungreen in a sentence

Adam is also a member of the class of ungreen things, and by virtue of being ungreen can be an icon for ungreen things.1973, Robert Snukal, High Talk: The Philosophical Poetry of W. B. Yeats, page 61:
This clearly demonstrates the problem of multivalence because ungreen colors are many.2020, Andrzej Jarczewski, The Verbal Philosophy of Real Time, page 122:
More popular with visiting schoolchildren than tourists, the arboretum is worth a visit for anyone craving greenery in this ungreen city.2009, Eliot Greenspan, Nicholas Gill, Charlie O'Malley, Frommer's? Central America, page 448:
The road had been transported or turned over into a kind of field and the grass was announcing itself in our ungreen and ungrowing world2013, Tim Dee, Four Fields, page 1:

Antonyms of ungreen

Forms of ungreen

third-person singular present	ungreens
present participle	ungreening
past participle	ungreened
past	ungreened

Origin of ungreen

From Middle English ungrene, from Old English ungrēne (“not green”), from Proto-West Germanic *ungrōnī (“not green”), equivalent to un- + green. Compare West Frisian ûngrien (“ungreen”), Dutch ongroen (“ungreen”), German ungrün (“not green”), Danish ugrøn (“ungreen”), Swedish ogrön (“ungreen”), Icelandic ógræn (“ungreen”).

Questions about ungreen

What does ungreen mean?: Ungreen means not green.
What is ungreen in Tamil?: Ungreen in Tamil is பசுமையற்ற. See Ungreen meaning in Tamil.
How do you use ungreen in a sentence?: Adam is also a member of the class of ungreen things, and by virtue of being ungreen can be an icon for ungreen things.
What part of speech is ungreen?: Ungreen can be an adjective or a verb.

Words near ungreen in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: ungreen (page history and authors); ungreen (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “ungreen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ungreen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.