Word.ws English Dictionary

unked

/ʌnˈkɛd/

unked adjective: odd; strange.

Adjective

unked (comparative more unked, superlative most unked)

  1. (UK, archaic, dialectal) odd; strange
    • On Tuesday afternoon Molly returned home, to the home which was already strange, and what Warwickshire people would call 'unked,' to her. New paint, new paper, new colours; grim servants dressed in their best, and objecting to every change1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1866, →OCLC
    • Forsooth he misdoubted him that the bow was somewhat unked, and that the lad had had some new dealings with the Dwarf-kin or other strange wights.1898, William Morris, The Sundering Flood, p. 41
  2. (UK, archaic, dialectal) ugly
    • And there the little stalk of each, which might have been a pear, God willing, had a ring around its base, and sought a chance to drop and die. The others which had not opened comb, but only prepared to do it, were a little better off, but still very brown and unked, and shrivelling in doubt of...1869, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, Lorna Doone, Chapter 17
  3. (UK, archaic, dialectal) uncouth
  4. (UK, archaic, dialectal) lonely; dreary
    • March 21, 1790, William Cowper, letter to Mrs. Throckmorton
      Weston is sadly unked without you.

Forms of unked

comparativemore unked
superlativemost unked

Origin of unked

From Middle English unked, past participle of unkythen, equivalent to un- + ked (an old past participle form of kithe).

Questions about unked

What does unked mean?
Unked means odd; strange.
What part of speech is unked?
Unked is an adjective.
How do you pronounce unked?
Unked is pronounced /ʌnˈkɛd/.

Words near unked in the dictionary

  1. unk.
  2. unKafkaesque
  3. Unkar
  4. unkard
  5. unke
  6. unked
  7. unkeeled
  8. unkeen
  9. unkeenly
  10. unkeepable
  11. unkeg

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unked (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: “unked.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unked. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.