Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not noble in quality, character, or purpose; base or dishonorable. synonym: base.
- adjective Not of high social status; common.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make ignoble or vile; degrade; disgrace; bring into disrepute.
- Not noble; not illustrious; of low birth or station.
- Not honorable or worthy; mean in character or quality; of no consideration or value.
- In some technical uses, lacking distinction; of low grade; of little esteem.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To make ignoble.
- adjective Of low birth or family; not noble; not illustrious; plebeian; common; humble.
- adjective Not honorable, elevated, or generous; base.
- adjective (Zoöl.) Not a true or noble falcon; -- said of certain hawks, as the goshawk.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Not
noble ;plebeian ;common . - adjective Not
honorable .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective not of the nobility
- adjective completely lacking nobility in character or quality or purpose
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He was highly vilified by foes and Nigerians in general for what they described as ignoble acts that questioned his credibility and brought disrespect to his office.
Thisday Online 2010
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He was highly vilified by foes and Nigerians in general for what they described as ignoble acts that questioned his credibility and brought disrespect to his office.
Thisday Online 2010
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Even the name of the award, a play on the word "ignoble," is meant to be deprecating.
Announcing the Year’s Winners of the IgNobel Prize | Impact Lab 2006
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"If I use my discrimination, father, I call ignoble what my father calls natural."
The Bride of Dreams Frederik van Eeden 1896
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Flaubert has said that "the ignoble is the sublime of the lower slope."
Promenades of an Impressionist James Huneker 1890
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The heart, which is supposed to be the noble part of man, has the same form as the penis, which is the so-called ignoble part of man.
Là-bas Keene [Translator] Wallace 1877
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Paaker's was, in fact, an ignoble, that is to say, a selfish nature; to shorten his road he trod down flowers as readily as he marched over the sand of the desert.
Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Volume 07 Georg Ebers 1867
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Paaker's was, in fact, an ignoble, that is to say, a selfish nature; to shorten his road he trod down flowers as readily as he marched over the sand of the desert.
Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Complete Georg Ebers 1867
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Paaker's was, in fact, an ignoble, that is to say, a selfish nature; to shorten his road he trod down flowers as readily as he marched over the sand of the desert.
Complete Project Gutenberg Georg Ebers Works Georg Ebers 1867
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Paaker's was, in fact, an ignoble, that is to say, a selfish nature; to shorten his road he trod down flowers as readily as he marched over the sand of the desert.
Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Volume 07 Georg Ebers 1867
mohitanand commented on the word ignoble
adjective: dishonorable
In 1919, the World Series was rigged--an ignoble act which baseball took decades to recover from.
October 20, 2016