unmean

English

Etymology 1

From un- (“not”) +‎ mean.

Adjective

unmean (comparative more unmean, superlative most unmean)

1. (rare) Not mean (all senses).
   • 1999, Martin Scorsese, Peter Brunette, Martin Scorsese: Interviews, page 188:

     The Age of Innocence is based on an Edith Wharton novel and set in the very unmean streets of upper-crust New York, circa 1870.

   • 2008, Sherri Rifkin, LoveHampton, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 247:

     But this whole time, all you've been doing is judging me, making not unmean comments about my new friends, about the guys I'm dating, about how much I drink, go out—everything—as if you don't approve.

   • 2014, Martin Bowman, Battlefield Bombers: Deep Sea Attack, page 8:

     They are so unmean, so just and so kind.

   • 2010, John Lennard, Of Sex and Faerie: Further Essays on Genre Fiction, page 65:

     So the tightrope these unmean men must walk drew taut.

Synonyms

• (various): kind, agreeable, generous

Etymology 2

From un- (“reverse, opposite”) +‎ mean.

Verb

unmean (third-person singular simple present unmeans, present participle unmeaning, simple past and past participle unmeant)

1. (rare) To reverse, cancel, or negate what was intentionally communicated.
   • 2007, Ralph Yarrow, Franc Chamberlain, Sacred Theatre, page 114:

     The play works to unmean meaning by a double dislocation. It uses expectation to undermine expectation both of everyday 'reality' and of theatrical genre.

   • 2011, Maria Damon, Postliterary America: From Bagel Shop Jazz to Micropoetries, page 83:

     ... just as Steinian non-sense derives its power to “unmean” from the rigidly semantic context of most discursive forms

   • 2015, CD Reiss, Shuttergirl:

     I'd meant everything I ever said to her, and I didn't know how to unmean it.

Synonyms

• take back, walk back, withcall

See also

• unring

Anagrams

• Neuman, unname