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Definition
improper, awkward, or unfavorable- She was embarrassed by his untoward behavior.
untoward = improper or awkward
- It would have been hard to make a more untoward comment.
- She thrived despite the untoward circumstances.
- She could hardly have made a more untoward choice.Jane Austen -- Mansfield Park
- She had found a seat, where in excessive trembling she was enduring all these fearful thoughts, while the other three, no longer under any restraint, were giving vent to their feelings of vexation, lamenting over such an unlooked-for premature arrival as a most untoward event, and without mercy wishing poor Sir Thomas had been twice as long on his passage, or were still in Antigua.Jane Austen -- Mansfield Park
- Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram received her very kindly; and Sir Thomas, seeing how much she needed encouragement, tried to be all that was conciliating: but he had to work against a most untoward gravity of deportment; and Lady Bertram, without taking half so much trouble, or speaking one word where he spoke ten, by the mere aid of a good-humoured smile, became immediately the less awful character of the two.Jane Austen -- Mansfield Park
- ...needed all the felicity of being again at home, and all the forbearance it could supply, to save Sir Thomas from anger on finding himself thus bewildered in his own house, making part of a ridiculous exhibition in the midst of theatrical nonsense, and forced in so untoward a moment to admit the acquaintance of a young man whom he felt sure of disapproving, and whose easy indifference and volubility in the course of the first five minutes seemed to mark him the most at home of the two.Jane Austen -- Mansfield Park
- To regard the event as an untoward accident seemed, to Farfrae, truest consideration for the dead one's memory, as well as best philosophy.Thomas Hardy -- The Mayor of Casterbridge
- Have to my widow! and if she be froward, Then hast thou taught Hortensio to be untoward.William Shakespeare -- The Taming of the Shrew
- Before leaving, the general also asked me my blood type, just in case anything untoward should happen the following day.Nelson Mandela -- Long Walk to Freedom
- There was no fire, no smoke, not the slightest untoward noise.Joseph Heller -- Catch-22
- He's got tenure, though, and he's never been caught at anything completely untoward.James Patterson -- Kiss the Girls
- Thereafter, the whistle alone will deal with trespassing or any other untoward behaviour.Yann Martel -- Life of Pi
- Nothing untoward occurred until the pudding.E.M. Forster -- A Room With A View
- Then Clara broke out: "Kinsman, I don't like this: something or another troubles me, and I feel as if something untoward were going to happen.William Morris -- News from Nowhere
- "No; indigestion," I retorted, and continued my walk as if nothing untoward had occurred.Jack London -- Sea Wolf
- Defense was able to show dozens of other occasions when Annie had entered the ward and nothing untoward had happened.Stephen King -- Misery
- With a scene of encoded sex, Mother could pretend not to notice that something untoward was going on while Father was enjoying his private smirk.Thomas C. Foster -- How to Read Literature Like a Professor
- Her efforts in this line, however, were brought to an abrupt close by an untoward accident, which quenched her ardor.Louisa May Alcott -- Little Women
- Clara was a good wife and worked hard; she never did anything untoward or unrespectable, and yet the fact that she had that Texas money made Bob uneasy.Larry McMurtry -- Lonesome Dove
untoward = improper or awkward
untoward = unfavorable
untoward = unfavorable
untoward = unfavorable
untoward = unfavorable
untoward = unfavorable