Word.ws English Dictionary

unlief

unlief adjective: not dear or beloved; unliked; unpleasant, hateful.

Adjective

unlief (comparative more unlief, superlative most unlief)

  1. (archaic) Not dear or beloved; unliked; unpleasant, hateful.

Forms of unlief

comparativemore unlief
superlativemost unlief

Origin of unlief

From Middle English unleeffe, unlef, from Old English unlēof (“not dear, not beloved, odious, hateful”), from Proto-West Germanic *unleub (“unloved, unpleasant”), from Proto-Germanic *unleubaz (“not dear, unpleasant”). By surface analysis, un- + lief. Cognate with Dutch onlief, German unlieb, Icelandic óljúfur (“unpleasant”).

Questions about unlief

What does unlief mean?
Unlief means not dear or beloved; unliked; unpleasant, hateful.
What part of speech is unlief?
Unlief is an adjective.

Words near unlief in the dictionary

  1. unlickerish
  2. unlid
  3. unlidded
  4. unlidding
  5. unlids
  6. unlief
  7. unlienable
  8. unlife
  9. unlifelike
  10. unlifelikeness
  11. unliftable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unlief (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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