DictionaryAI

unhappy

un-HAP-ee/ʌnˈhæpi/

Noun pluralunhappies

6 meanings of unhappy

Practice

  1. 1
    adjective
    Feeling or showing sadness; not happy.

    He grew increasingly unhappy in a city where he knew no one.

    Her unhappy expression told everyone the news was bad.

    Similarsad, depressed, down, dejected, downcast

    Oppositehappy, glad, joyful, joyous

    Note

    The core emotional sense, built from un- and happy as far back as Middle English. It takes both comparative patterns: unhappier and unhappiest sit beside more unhappy and most unhappy. John Gay's line in The Beggar's Opera (1728), "A moment of time may make us unhappy forever," shows the word in one of its most natural frames: make someone unhappy.

  2. 2
    adjective
    Not satisfied; displeased with how something has turned out.

    Shareholders remain unhappy with the company's quarterly performance.

    Many residents were unhappy about the proposed changes to the park.

    Similardissatisfied

    Oppositehappy, satisfied, pleased, content

  3. 3
    adjectivedated
    Marked by misfortune; unlucky.

    An unhappy coincidence brought the two rival armies to the same narrow valley.

    The pointed shaft of the cart had entered the breast of the unhappy Prince like a sword, and from the wound his life's blood was spouting in a stream, and falling with a hiss into the road.
    1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

    Similarunlucky, unfortunate, hapless, luckless, inauspicious

    Oppositelucky, fortunate, happy

    Note

    Here the meaning is ill-fated rather than sad: the person or thing meets bad luck, whatever they may feel. Thomas Hardy still writes "the unhappy Prince" in Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) for a victim of sudden misfortune. This use is now dated, and modern readers tend to hear the feeling of sadness. When the meaning must be unmistakable, hapless or unlucky is the safer choice.

  4. 4
    nouncountable
    A person who is not happy; someone in a settled state of sadness.

    Among the celebrating crowd, he stood out as a lone unhappy.

    The counselor's office became a quiet refuge for the unhappies of the school.

    Note

    A rare use that turns the adjective into a countable noun, complete with the plural unhappies. The New Yorker in 1972 places the writer Leduc among "many other unhappies," a label for a kind of person rather than a passing mood. The noun stands out as unusual. In ordinary prose, an unhappy person is the safer phrasing.

Less common meanings

  1. 5
    adjectivedated
    Not suitable or fitting; poorly chosen for the circumstances.

    The architect's unhappy decision to use cheap materials soon became obvious.

    The people, if they are not strangely bent Against our welfare, never will consent To this unhappy match, foreboding ill: What's it to us, if th' adverse nation will?
    1563, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes

    Similarunsuitable, inappropriate, unfit, improper, inept

    Oppositeappropriate, suitable, happy, apt

    Note

    A judgment on choices rather than on fortune or feeling: an unhappy match, phrase or decision is one badly suited to its circumstances. John Foxe's Actes and Monuments (1563) speaks of "this unhappy match" the people will never consent to. Unlike the "ill-fated" meaning, the fault lies in the fit, not in luck. Present-day writing usually prefers unfit or inappropriate, which carry the idea without the dated ring.

  2. 6
    verbobsolete
    To make someone unhappy or sad, or to become unhappy.
    A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments, By you unhappied and disfigured clean
    1595, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”
    Most unhappying! I had to get up, have a nice hot bath and then go out into the cold rain to Ted's for breakfast.
    2011, Jeanne Comings Majdalany, “In Foreign Lands — A Teacher and A Learner”

    Similarsadden, depress, grieve, upset, dispirit

    Note

    A verb formed by putting the adjective to work, with the regular forms unhappied and unhappying. Shakespeare has a gentleman "by you unhappied and disfigured clean" (1595), and Sir John Eliot writes to the Duke of Buckingham in 1625 that nothing "has more unhappied me." Its uses run only as far as Alexander Falconbridge in 1788. Today the idea is put as make unhappy, or with sadden, deject or depress.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English unhappy, equivalent to the prefix un- ('not') added to happy.