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unlucky

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From un- +‎ lucky.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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unlucky (comparative unluckier or more unlucky, superlative unluckiest or most unlucky)

  1. Unfortunate, marked by misfortune.
    • 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act V, scene ii, page 338:
      I pray you in your Letters, / When you ſhall theſe vnluckie deeds relate, / Speake of me, as I am. […] / Of one, whoſe ſubdu'd Eyes, / Albeit un-vsed to the melting moode, / Drops teares as faſt as the Arabian Trees / Their Medicinable gumme.
    • 1936, Andrew Barton ("Banjo") Paterson, The Shearer′s Colt‎[1]:
      "So he has a chance," said Connie. "Buckley's chance, the way his luck is. Fell out with his girl he did, and lost his job, and now 'e's goin' to lose 'is life. The unluckiest man that ever lived."
    • 1999 February 14, Liesl Schillinger, “The Lost Art of the Love Affair”, in The New York Times‎[2]:
      Her unluckier daughter and great-granddaughter have been tarred by amour's sloppy brush; but Mrs. Keppel, as her biographer Diana Souhami has written, "turned adultery into an art."
    • 2020 January 2, Dr Mike Esbester, “Waste disposal...”, in Rail, page 36:
      For those unlucky enough to be on a service without lavatory provision, we can only speculate as to how passengers improvised if caught short. For men, it might be possible to urinate, albeit at the risk of offending fellow passengers - there were reports of passengers being hauled up before the courts for 'micturition' in coaches during the 19th century.
  2. Inauspicious.
  3. Having ill luck.
  4. Bringing ill luck.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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