a. and adv. [UN-1 7 c.]
A. adj. 1. Of character, actions, etc.: Not befitting or natural to a gentleman.
1592. Nashe, Four Lett. Confuted, H 1 b. Neither was I … pincht with any vngentleman-like want, when I inuented Pierce Pennilesse.
1652. Wadsworth, trans. Sandoval’s Civ. Wars Spain, 363. Hee was mightily condemned by all that saw or heard of that ungentleman-like action.
1728. Lett. fr. Fog’s Jrnl., 21 Dec., 1/1. I cannot conceive the Cause from whence that base, that unworthy, that Un-Gentleman-like Quality [sc. avarice] should arise.
1800. Mar. Edgeworth, Limerick Gloves, iv. Complaining of the ungenerous and ungentleman-like behaviour in the grocer.
1884. Macm. Mag., Nov., 12/2. Work just as dirty, and tricks just as ungentleman-like.
2. Not resembling a gentleman.
1718. Free-thinker, No. 126. The most Illiberal, Ungentlemanlike, Members of Society.
1749. Chesterf., Lett., 15 May (1774), I. cl. 413. They come home, the unimproved, illiberal, and ungentleman-like creatures, that one daily sees them.
1814. Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, xli. Ungentlemanlike as he looked.
B. adv. Not after the fashion of a gentleman.
1664. Pepys, Diary, 14 July. My Lord Chancellor … said that I did most ungentlemanlike with him.
1687. Settle, Refl. Dryden, 74. Do not deal so unnaturally and ungentleman like, to treat so honourable a man … so rudely.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xxiii. How unkingly, unknightly, ignobly, ungentleman-like, he hath conducted himself towards us.
Hence Ungentlemanlikeness.
1848. J. H. Newman, Loss & Gain, I. iv. (1853), 201. I have behaved quite rudely to the Puseyites sometimes, and then been ashamed of my ungentlemanlikeness.
