unpropitious

adjective

un·​pro·​pi·​tious ˌən-prə-ˈpi-shəs How to pronounce unpropitious (audio)
: not likely to have or produce a good result : not favorable or advantageous : not propitious
an unpropitious time
Jasper could not have selected a more unpropitious moment for his cause.Edward Bulwer-Lytton
unpropitiously adverb

Examples of unpropitious in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Handing the baton to Harris at this unpropitious time for Democrats is like Napoleon’s handing off his military command to Marshal Ney to conduct the disastrous French retreat from Moscow in 1812, featuring 500,000 French casualties. Armstrong Williams, Baltimore Sun, 23 July 2024 Here are a handful of quick Thesaurus pulls to help paint a picture of how the unit played: unpropitious, cataclysmic, demoralizing, execrable. Chris Bumbaca, USA TODAY, 9 Jan. 2023 The exhausted refugees are greeted by a functionary of the Relief Committee with the unpropitious nickname Statistics Babu. Parul Sehgal, The New Yorker, 26 Dec. 2022 That will be an unpropitious setting for launching a network: if the teams are unclear on the goal, the risk of confusion is considerable. Steve Denning, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2021 JoyFish sits in a strip mall in an unpropitious space that has seen several restaurants come and go. Tan Vinh, The Seattle Times, 11 July 2017

Word History

First Known Use

1613, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of unpropitious was in 1613

Dictionary Entries Near unpropitious

Cite this Entry

“Unpropitious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unpropitious. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024.

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