unapt

[ uhn-apt ]

adjective

1. not appropriate; unfit; unsuitable:

   an unapt answer.

2. not prone, likely, or disposed:

   She is unapt to waste what she has accumulated with such effort.

3. deficient in aptitude or capacity; slow; dull:

   an unapt student.

unapt

/ ʌnˈæpt /

adjective

1. usually postpositiveoften foll byfor not suitable or qualified; unfitted
2. mentally slow
3. postpositive; may take an infinitive not disposed or likely (to)

Derived Forms

• unˈaptness, noun
• unˈaptly, adverb

Other Words From

• un·aptly adverb
• un·aptness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of unapt¹

Middle English word dating back to 1325–75; un- ¹, apt

Example Sentences

If someone fleeing war or persecution lands first in the United States – deemed a “safe country,” a notion now dramatically unapt – they are barred from seeking refuge in Canada.

From The Guardian

The local newspaper the Sheffield Mercury called him a "disappointment", adding that he was "exceedingly loath to climb, and in what effort he did make, his admirers thought him indolent, unapt, and unwieldy".

From BBC

Yet the madness of the Reign of Terror is no unapt illustration of the violent emotions to which medi�val populations were subject, for good or for evil, giving occasion to the startling contrasts which render the period so picturesque, and relieve the sordidness of its daily life with splendid exhibitions of the loftiest enthusiasm or with hideous deeds of brutality.

From Project Gutenberg

"The reservedness of the Prince's nature, and the little education he then had in Courts made him unapt to make acquaintance with any of the Lords, who were thereby discouraged from applying themselves to him," says Clarendon.

From Project Gutenberg

In Scotland, likewise, they have given themselves unto very ample and large diet, wherein as for some respect nature doth make them equal with us, so otherwise they far exceed us in over much and distemperate gormandize, and so engross their bodies, that divers of them do oft become unapt to any other purpose than to spend their time in large tabling and belly cheer.

From Project Gutenberg