a. Also 7 ungenteile, -iel, 7–8 ungentile. [UN-1 7 and 5 b.] Not genteel: a. Of manners, habits, employments, etc.
α. 1633. Prynne, Histrio-m., Ep. Ded. Yet I hope I shall finde no such ungenteile, discourteous entertainment.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., V. xiv. 413. Drinking is … a most ungentile quality, fit to be banished to rogues and rags.
1691. E. Rawson, in Andros Tracts, I. 68. The Buffoonry and Railery of such ungentiel Pens.
1711. J. Greenwood, Eng. Gram., 110. It is counted ungentile and rude to say, Thou dost so and so.
β. 1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xii. ¶ 1. Some Letter-Cutters … scorn to use a Forge, as accounting it … Ungenteel for themselves to officiate at.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., I. 180. Bale bestows another ungenteel Sarcasm upon this great Armach.
1778. Earl Malmesbury, Diaries & Corr., I. 211. His person was awkward, and his dress ungenteel.
1811. Sporting Mag., XXXVIII. 93. It is considered ungenteel to cut the pastry.
1898. Watts-Dunton, Aylwin, IV. ii. Have I not often told you the reason why I … missed my high vocation in ungenteel comedy?
b. Of persons.
1676. Shadwell, Libertine, II. Thou art the most ungenteel Knight alive: use your Ladies civilly, for shame.
1712. Spect., No. 404, ¶ 6. Iras is ugly and ungenteel, but has Wit and good Sense.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, I. x. [The half-pay officer] was not ungenteel, nor entirely void of Wit.
1813. Jane Austen, Lett. (1884), II. 172. She is a large, ungenteel woman, with self-satisfied and would-be elegant manners.
1844. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, ix. With this sum of money … we were enabled to make no ungenteel figure.
Hence Ungenteelness.
1706. Stevens, I. Desalino,… sluttishness, ungenteelness.
1723. Briton, No. 11 (1724), 50. Philander discovers some Ungenteelnesses in his Manner and Behaviour.
1727. Art of Speaking in Publick, 81. The indecency and ungenteelness of clamour and noise.
