1. Not feeling or displaying gratitude.
1553. Brende, Q. Curtius, X. 216. The Macedons … confessyng them selues bothe wicked and vngrateful for depriuynge him of anye name wherof he was worthye.
1587. Mirr. for Mag., Albanact, lxii. If you ungratefull mindes doe beare, What meaneth death to let mee linger here.
1621. in Foster, Eng. Factories Ind. (1906), I. 354. Such base ungratfull slaves they bee.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, IV. 529. All, symptoms of a base ungrateful mind, So foul, that which is worse, ’tis hard to find.
1740. Richardson, Pamela, II. 356. If it was, I must be the ungratefullest Person in the World, because I am the most obliged Person in it.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, IV. xx. Ungrateful to God’s clemency, That spared me penitential time.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 206. That I am ungrateful I wholly deny.
absol. 1675. Dryden, Aurengz., IV. (1676), 64. Th’ ungrateful does a more ungrateful find.
1690. The Great Scanderbeg, 82. The Ungrateful despises my flame with a cruel obstinacy.
1829. Lytton, Devereux, I. i. He could not persuade his lips to repeat a sarcasm hurting even the dead or the ungrateful.
spec. 1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Ungrateful man, a parson, who at least once a week abuses his best benefactor, i. e. the devil.
b. Of actions, etc.: Displaying lack of gratitude.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. iv. By ungratefull scorning the ornaments of Nature, am I now piping in a shadow?
1641. Prynne, Antipathie, 9. O perfidious, ungratefull Councell and swasion of this Prelate.
1700. Prior, Carm. Sec., xxxv. Nor let the Muses, with ungrateful Pride, The Sources of their Treasure hide.
1799. Med. Jrnl., I. 220. Asserting, that contemporary writers received his works with an ungrateful silence.
1825. Scott, Betrothed, xix. These sentiments … I have combated … as being … ungrateful to you.
c. transf. Of soil, trees, etc.: Not responding to cultivation.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., I. 12. A soil ungrateful to the Tiller’s care.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, II. 181. As fruits, ungrateful to the planter’s care, On savage stocks inserted, learn to bear.
1788. Gibbon, Decl. & F., l. V. 178. Their ungrateful soil refused the labours of agriculture.
1842. Borrow, Bible in Spain, xxiii. The land is ungrateful and barren.
1864. Trevelyan, Compet. Wallah (1866), 288. The labourers in this ungrateful vineyard.
2. Unpleasant, disagreeable, distasteful.
1596. Davies, Orchestra, 19. [To] tell … How she illudes … Th’vngratefull loue which other Lords began.
1641. Vind. Smectymnuus, iii. 53. It is in his power to save himselfe and us this ungrateful labour.
1691. Hartcliffe, Virtues, 178. For a Man to praise or dispraise himself is ungrateful, and quickly cloyes the hearer.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), V. lxxi. I. 320. Monopolies … are generally ungrateful to the people of a free state.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xii. I. 325. The ungrateful rumour reached his ears.
1836. J. Gilbert, Chr. Atonem., ix. (1852), 281. Even the kindness…, though not ungrateful, will not excite the proper working of esteem.
b. Of taste or smell, or of things in respect of these.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, I. xxviii. 34. These roots haue a strong … smell, and somewhat an vngratefull taste.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 307. Laudanum is best to be taken in a Pill, because of his ungrateful tast.
1663. Bp. Patrick, Parab. Pilgr., xxviii. Good wine which … is rendred … acid and ungrateful to our palate.
a. 1682. Sir T. Browne, Tracts (1683), 12. That which we now have is of an ungratefull odour.
1725. Sloane, Jamaica, II. 17. The Nuts … are then tosted,… and made into an ungrateful drink.
1753. Hanway, Trav., V. lx. (1762), I. 279. The reeds through which we passed sent forth an ungrateful stench.
1846. Mrs. A. Marsh, Father Darcy, II. ii. 69. There he sat—endeavouring to touch the ungrateful food.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 465. By which certain foods are recognised, consciously or not, as grateful or ungrateful.
c. Of sounds.
1659. O. Walker, Instruct. Oratory, 24. Too many Consonants or Vowells comming together are to be avoided, as causing an ungrateful sound.
1690. C. Nesse, O. & N. Test., I. 16. Some sounds … are very harsh and ungrateful.
1759. Goldsm., Polite Learn., ii. It was the poet who harmonized the ungrateful accents of his native dialect.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., xxxviii. 12. Then are these songs I sing of thee Not all ungrateful to thine ear.
