Word.ws English Dictionary

unmanlier

unmanlier is the comparative form of unmanly.

Meaning of unmanly

Adjective

unmanly (comparative unmanlier or more unmanly, superlative unmanliest or most unmanly)

  1. Showing characteristics that are not manly, such as being immature, effeminate or cowardly, which might be construed as an indicator of weakness or of baseness of character.
    • 'I do not know which is the worse,' he cried, 'the fraudulent old villain or the unmanly young cub. […]1889, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lloyd Osbourne, The Wrong Box
  2. (archaic) Of or pertaining to something not human.
    • And then, it may be, of his wish to roam
      Repented he, but in his bosom slept
      The silent thought, nor from his lips did come
      One word of wail, whilst others sate and wept,
      And to the reckless gales unmanly moaning kept.1812–1818, Lord Byron, “(please specify |canto=I to IV)”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by...
  3. Not acceptable from a man.
    • Mr. Coverley was quite brutal: he swore at her with unmanly rage, and seemed scarce able to refrain even from striking her.1778, Fanny Burney, Evelina: Or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World
  4. Not becoming of a man.
    • Jo wanted to lay her head down on that motherly bosom, and cry her grief and anger all away, but tears were an unmanly weakness, and she felt so deeply injured that she really couldn’t quite forgive yet.1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
  5. Cowardly, base.
    • Full many mischiefes follow cruell Wrath;
      Abhorred bloodshed and tumultuous strife,
      Unmanly murder, and unthrifty scath,
      Bitter despight, with rancours rusty knife,
      And fretting griefe the enemy of life;
      All these, and many evils moe haunt ire,
      The swelling Splene, and Frenzy raging rife,
      The...1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

See all 6 meanings of unmanly

Questions about unmanlier

What is unmanlier the comparative form of?
Unmanlier is the comparative form of unmanly.

Words near unmanlier in the dictionary

  1. unmanifesting
  2. unmanipulable
  3. unmanipulatable
  4. unmanipulated
  5. unmanipulative
  6. unmanlier
  7. unmanliest
  8. unmanlike
  9. unmanlily
  10. unmanliness
  11. unmanlinesses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unmanlier (page history and authors); unmanly (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: “unmanlier.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unmanlier. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.