unmanly

/ʌnˈmænli/

unmanly adjective: 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.

Adjective

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

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
- He'd be wearing white pants and playing lawn tennis presently if he continued to grow much softer and more unmanly.1914 October – 1916 July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter XI, in The Mucker, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published 31 October 1921, →OCLC
(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...
- I had bought a toy in the street for my own amusement. It represented a woman, a young mother, flinging her little son over her head with one hand and catching him in the other ... The unmanly chuckle always came, I found, when the poor lady dropped her babe, […]1902, J. M. Barrie, The Little White Bird
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
- "Lor’, sir, you wouldn’t have ’em in short clothes, poor little dears?" And she said it in a tone that seemed to imply I had suggested some unmanly outrage.1886, Jerome K. Jerome, “On Babies”, in Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
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
- First, the more robust boys considered talking with girls an unmanly occupation; second, the greater part of the boys were afraid; third, they had no idea of what to say, because they esteemed the proper sentences should be supernaturally incisive and eloquent.1899 November, Stephen Crane, “"Showin' Off"”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 99, number 594
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

Adverb

unmanly (comparative more unmanly, superlative most unmanly)

In a manner that is unmanly.
- He had acted unmanly, unworthy of a gentleman.1878, The Christian Monitor, volume 17, page 298
- "That means that we shan't quarrel if I agree to whatever you are going to propose. What is it you want to say?" he asked, becoming grave in his turn. "Is it that I have behaved unmanly in visiting your room in your absence? Why cavil about a little thing of that sort? I do this for you as I would...1900, Pauline Hopkins, Contending forces : a romance illustrative of negro life north and south

unmanly meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

unmanly in Urdu

بزدلانہ, ڈرپوک, نامرد, نامراد

unmanly in Malayalam

effete, effeminate, unmasculine: ആണത്തമറ്റ, പുരുഷോചിതമല്ലാത്ത, അപൗരുഷ, സ്ത്രൈണ, അകല്പ, പ്രകൃതിതരള

unmanly in Kannada

ಗಂಡಸುತನವಿಲ್ಲದ, ಅಂಜಿಕೆಯ, ಹೇಡಿತನದ

Examples of unmanly in a sentence

Nothing captured the alt-right mentality better than cuckservative, with its taunt that moderation is unmanly and certain conservative males are cuckolds.2017 December 22, Dominic Green, “Are You Sufficiently Woke?”, in The Weekly Standard, Washington, retrieved 10 Feb 2022:
He did not know which was more painful to witness: Hempel's unmanly cringing, or the air of fatuous satisfaction that succeeded it.1917, Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix:
Nobody says that most voteless men regarded a vote as unmanly.1910, G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World:
"Is it that I have behaved unmanly in visiting your room in your absence?1900, Pauline Hopkins, Contending forces : a romance illustrative of negro life north and south:

Forms of unmanly

Adjective
comparative	unmanlier
comparative	more unmanly
superlative	unmanliest
superlative	most unmanly
Adverb
comparative	more unmanly
superlative	most unmanly

Origin of unmanly

From un- + manly.

Words formed from unmanly

unmanliness

Questions about unmanly

What does unmanly mean?: Unmanly means 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.
What is unmanly in Urdu?: Unmanly in Urdu is بزدلانہ, ڈرپوک, نامرد. See Unmanly meaning in Urdu.
How do you use unmanly in a sentence?: Nothing captured the alt-right mentality better than cuckservative, with its taunt that moderation is unmanly and certain conservative males are cuckolds.
What part of speech is unmanly?: Unmanly can be an adjective or an adverb.
How do you pronounce unmanly?: Unmanly is pronounced /ʌnˈmænli/.

Words near unmanly in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: unmanly (page history and authors); unmanly (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); unmanly (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); unmanly (Kannada 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

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-unmanly.wav.

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