Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective not decorative
  • adjective unsightly, displeasing to the eye

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From un- +‎ decorative

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Examples

  • For earrings the Bubi wears pieces of wood stuck through the lobe of the ear, and although this is not a decorative habit still it is less undecorative than that of certain mainland friends of mine in this region, who wear large and necessarily dripping lumps of fat in their ears and in their hair.

    Travels in West Africa 2003

  • We call this the physical expression of _woman's personality_; this personality moulds her bodily lines and if properly directed determines the character of the clothes she wears; determines also whether she be a decorative object which says something in line and colour, or an undecorative object which says nothing.

    Woman as Decoration Emily Burbank

  • His wasn't effeminate; it was undecorative as a filled ash-tray, despite Una's daily following up of the careless scrubwomen with dust-cloth and whisk.

    The Job An American Novel Sinclair Lewis 1918

  • In short, where other attractive husbands brought a boring wife, Lord Borrodaile brought an undecorative daughter.

    The Convert 1907

  • In short, where other attractive husbands brought a boring wife, Lord Borrodaile brought an undecorative daughter.

    The Convert Elizabeth Robins 1907

  • How stereotyped and assertive they were, and undecorative!

    The Complete Home Oliver R. [Contributor] Williamson 1907

  • Steve lurched to his feet, thrusting an undecorative face over the table.

    The Desire of the Moth; and the Come On Eugene Manlove Rhodes 1901

  • Several competitors -- Littleton among them -- had come in person to explain the merits of their respective drawings, and by the side of solid, red-bearded, undecorative Mr. Cass, Littleton may well have seemed a dandy.

    Unleavened Bread Robert Grant 1896

  • For earrings the Bubi wears pieces of wood stuck through the lobe of the ear, and although this is not a decorative habit still it is less undecorative than that of certain mainland friends of mine in this region, who wear large and necessarily dripping lumps of fat in their ears and in their hair.

    Travels in West Africa Mary H. Kingsley 1881

  • _adorn_, for Catherine's unattractive face could adorn nothing, and this severe portrait in widow's weeds, with none of the pomp and circumstance of royalty to light up the sombre garb, is singularly undecorative.

    In Château Land Anne Hollingsworth Wharton 1886

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