untoward

Definition

Unfavourable, adverse, or disadvantageous.

Etymology

From un- + toward (“to + -ward”).

Example Sentences

• "But as soon as her son espied her, bowl in hand, he thought that haply something untoward had befallen her, but he would not ask of aught until such time as she had set down the bowl, when she acquainted him with that which had occurred[…]"
• "Honest men for the most part, but men with whom the world had dealt hardly; the failures of all countries, men sobered by toil and saddened by exile, who had been driven to fight for the dominion of an untoward soil, to sow where others should gather, the advance-guard of a mighty civilization to be."
• "At Tebay however, he began to get the mastery over these untoward conditions, and actually got back a little time up to Shap, after which all was plain sailing."