unkempt

• uncompt (obsolete)

From earlier unkembed, unkemmed, from Middle English unkempt (“uncombed”), equivalent to un- +‎ kempt. Compare Old Norse úkembdr (uncombed; unkempt"; > Icelandic ókembdur), German ungekämmt (“unkempt”), Dutch ongekamd. More at kemb.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˌʌnˈkɛmpt/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (General American):

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• Rhymes: -ɛmpt
• Hyphenation: un‧kempt

unkempt (comparative more unkempt, superlative most unkempt)

1. Of hair, uncombed, dishevelled.

   Synonyms: dishevelled, slovenly

   • 1916, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “John”, in Twilight in Italy, London: Duckworth and Co. […], →OCLC, pages 211–212:

     He was a queer shoot, again, in his unkempt longish hair and slovenly clothes, a sort of very vulgar down-at-heel American in appearance.

   • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 289:

     Men on cycles, lean-faced, unkempt, scorched along every country lane, shouting of unhoped deliverance, shouting to gaunt, staring figures of despair.

   • 1910, Jeffery Farnol, chapter 3, in The Broad Highway:

     Now, upon his whole person, from the crown of his unkempt head down to his broken, dusty boots, there yet clung that air of jaunty, devil-may-care rakishness.

2. (figuratively, by extension) Disorderly; untidy; messy; not kept up.

   unkempt bedroom

   • 1894, George du Maurier, Trilby:

     And his egotism and conceit were not to be borne; and then he was both tawdry and dirty in his person; more greasily, mattedly unkempt than even a really successful pianist has any right to be, even in the best society.

   • 2014, Robert Barr, The Strong Arm: And Other Stories, →ISBN, page 64:

     The Countess had liked Elsa from the first moment when she saw her, ragged, unkempt and forlorn, among the lowering, suspicious men-at-arms in the courtyard, and now that she knew the dangers and the privations the girl had braved for the sake of Wilhelm, the affectionate heart of Beatrix found ample room for the motherless Elsa.

3. (figurative) Rough; unpolished.

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Uncompt”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume X, Part 1 (Ti–U), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 95, column 1.