"un-" Definition

Definitions for the word "un-" from multiple English dictionaries.

1.
An inseparable verbal prefix or particle. It is prefixed: (a) To verbs to express the contrary, and not the simple negative, of the action of the verb to which it is prefixed; as in uncoil, undo, unfold. (b) To nouns to form verbs expressing privation of the thing, quality, or state expressed by the noun, or separation from it; as in unchild, unsex. Sometimes particles and participial adjectives formed with this prefix coincide in form with compounds of the negative prefix un- (see 2d Un-); as in undone (from undo), meaning unfastened, ruined; and undone (from 2d un- and done) meaning not done, not finished. Un- is sometimes used with an intensive force merely; as in unloose.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
2. adv.
An inseparable prefix, or particle, signifying not; in-; non-. In- is prefixed mostly to words of Latin origin, or else to words formed by Latin suffixes; un- is of much wider application, and is attached at will to almost any adjective, or participle used adjectively, or adverb, from which it may be desired to form a corresponding negative adjective or adverb, and is also, but less freely, prefixed to nouns. Un- sometimes has merely an intensive force; as in unmerciless, unremorseless.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
3. adv.
Un- is prefixed to adjectives, or to words used adjectively.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
4. adv.
To adjectives, to denote the absence of the quality designated by the adjective
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
5. adv.
To past particles, or to adjectives formed after the analogy of past particles, to indicate the absence of the condition or state expressed by them
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
6. adv.
To present particles which come from intransitive verbs, or are themselves employed as adjectives, to mark the absence of the activity, disposition, or condition implied by the participle; as, - ---- and the like.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
7. adv.
Those which have acquired an opposed or contrary, instead of a merely negative, meaning; as, unfriendly, ungraceful, unpalatable, unquiet, and the like; or else an intensive sense more than a prefixed not would express; as, unending, unparalleled, undisciplined, undoubted, unsafe, and the like.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
8. adv.
Those which have the value of independent words, inasmuch as the simple words are either not used at all, or are rarely, or at least much less frequently, used; as, unavoidable, unconscionable, undeniable, unspeakable, unprecedented, unruly, and the like; or inasmuch as they are used in a different sense from the usual meaning of the primitive, or especially in one of the significations of the latter; as, unaccountable, unalloyed, unbelieving, unpretending, unreserved, and the like; or inasmuch as they are so frequently and familiarly used that they are hardly felt to be of negative origin; as, uncertain, uneven, and the like.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
9. adv.
Those which are anomalous, provincial, or, for some other reason, not desirable to be used, and are so indicated; as, unpure for impure, unsatisfaction for dissatisfaction, unexpressible for inexpressible, and the like.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
10. adv.
Un- is prefixed to nouns to express the absence of, or the contrary of, that which the noun signifies; as, unbelief, unfaith, unhealth, unrest, untruth, and the like.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913

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Additional Info
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