How to Use unpromising in a Sentence

unpromising

adjective

• Things got off to an unpromising start.
• She can do a lot with unpromising material.
• Like the unpromising shape, the feel of the car is just not very sporty.
  — Kevin Smith, Car and Driver, 26 Dec. 2022
• Amid such an unpromising start to the year, farmers caught a break from Mother Nature.
  — Evan Ramstad, Star Tribune, 9 Jan. 2021
• And how will these artists, who had developed in the most unpromising of circumstances, handle the world-wide fame and celebrity that came their way in their 40s and 50s?
  — Ann Landi, WSJ, 20 Sep. 2018
• Here is a brilliant young mind, stranded in a bleak, unpromising landscape.
  — Noel Murray, Los Angeles Times, 30 Sep. 2022
• The company may be smart to wriggle out of unpromising leases, but that could force WeWork to pay penalties.
  — Washington Post, 25 Nov. 2019
• Then hang on for many years while keeping an eye out for any unpromising developments.
  — Dallas News, 7 June 2020
• From this unpromising straw, the American natcons tried to spin the political gold of an all-out culture war.
  — Joseph C. Sternberg, WSJ, 17 Nov. 2022
• But if the political process is unpromising, people working in the market are making their own progress.
  — Anchorage Daily News, 25 Mar. 2018
• Through the narrow lens of politics – gauging the prospects of a landmark deal to make good on the unfulfilled promise of the 2015 Paris Agreement – the picture looks distinctly unpromising.
  — Ned Temko, The Christian Science Monitor, 3 Nov. 2021
• Perhaps the most creative choice was taking poor-quality soil that wouldn’t grow vegetables and planting olive trees that thrive on those unpromising acres.
  — Shawn Tully, Fortune, 15 Apr. 2021
• Skillful manipulation of the grill can make unpromising odds and ends worth eating.
  — New York Times, 13 July 2021
• In this unpromising milieu, the young Picasso, with his broken French and outcast friends, struggled to avoid arrest or even expulsion.
  — Hugh Eakin, Washington Post, 22 Mar. 2023
• The macro-level picture is also unpromising – the entire Chinese economy is slowing down (or worse).
  — George Calhoun, Forbes, 1 June 2022
• The unpromising weather nearly persuaded him to call off the attempt, run an ordinary race and save the more intensive effort for a meet in London scheduled 10 days later.
  — Frank Litsky and Bruce Weber, New York Times, 4 Mar. 2018
• The deprivation felt in a swing state like Nevada, which is home to a key Senate race this year, and across the nation reflects the unpromising environment for Democrats trying to maintain control of Congress.
  — Maeve Reston and Stephen Collinson, CNN, 13 Jan. 2022
• For the teenagers who don’t manage to excel at academics, despite their obvious intelligence and wit, the years ahead may not just be unpromising, but a virtual and never-ending prison.
  — Charles Isherwood, WSJ, 19 May 2022
• Either that or a vegan-punk festival where the weather forecast was unpromising.
  — Geoff Dyer, GQ, 5 Feb. 2018
• Only Boris Johnson could take such unpromising material and turn it to his advantage.
  — Rosa Prince, CNN, 1 Feb. 2022
• The results have been far from unpromising, notwithstanding the fog machine of an unimaginative and conformist press.
  — Holman W. Jenkins, WSJ, 20 Oct. 2020
• Teddy’s unpromising fifth cousin—was written off as a rich, foppish lightweight with little more than an aristocratic accent and rich parents.
  — Edward Kosner, WSJ, 25 Sep. 2018
• The results were so clearly unpromising that the researchers ended the hydroxychloroquine arm of their study prematurely.
  — Grace Huckins, Wired, 17 June 2020
• The history of live music performance series on YouTube was also unpromising.
  — Andrew R. Chow, Time, 27 Nov. 2019
• An unpromising design that has been pushed and shoved toward reasonable levels of refinement and performance.
  — Kevin Smith, Car and Driver, 4 Mar. 2023
• Both Mr. Parker and the woman came from strikingly similar and largely unpromising backgrounds.
  — Brooks Barnes and Cara Buckley, New York Times, 17 Aug. 2016
• The queasy mix of realism and wish-fulfillment will set many viewers’ heads spinning, or at least shaking with disappointment, in this well-intentioned but unpromising debut.
  — John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Jan. 2022
• Here, though, the unpromising architecture supports the paintings’ impact.
  — Christopher Knight, latimes.com, 9 Oct. 2017
• Mariam, who’s approaching 70, couldn’t afford hundreds of dollars more, and other options looked unpromising.
  — Lily Janiak, San Francisco Chronicle, 5 Dec. 2021
• Ticks are resilient animals, so attempting to destroy a tick nest using force will usually yield unpromising results.
  — USA TODAY, 24 June 2023

Last Updated: 10 Dec 2024