Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not suitable or appropriate.
- adjective Not likely or liable.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Not apt; not ready or inclined.
- Dull; not ready to learn: same as
inapt , 2. - Unfit; inappropriate; unsuitable; not qualified; not disposed.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Inapt; slow; dull.
- adjective Unsuitable; unfit; inappropriate.
- adjective Not accustomed and not likely; not disposed.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Not
apt ,inappropriate ,unsuited .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The pigmy majesty of the captain of the fairy band had no unapt representative in Miss Digges, whose modesty was not so great an intruder as to prevent her desire to present him in all his dignity, and she moved, conscious of the graceful turn of a pretty ankle, which, encircled with a string of pearls, and clothed in flesh-coloured silk, of the most cobweb texture, rose above the crimson sandal.
Saint Ronan's Well 2008
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The assistants, especially the English servants of Margaret, gazed on them both with respect and wonder, and the elder cavalier, in particular, seemed to them no unapt representative of the faithful subjects of England, paying their last duty at the tomb of her who had so long swayed the sceptre, if not faultlessly, yet always with a bold and resolved hand.
Anne of Geierstein 2008
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Rove's implacable equanimity as the pink-inside SFan seizes attention, again, in an hilariously unapt attempt at a citizen's arrest.
"Beware the long arm of Butt-Head." Ann Althouse 2008
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Guicciardini, a man most unapt to believe lies, relates how that Ferdinand his father's ghost who before had died for grief, came and told him, that he could not resist the
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Moreover they are apt to mistake, amplify, too credulous sometimes, too full of hope and confidence, and then again very jealous, unapt to believe or entertain any good news.
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The severity of judgement, they say, makes men censorious and unapt to pardon the errors and infirmities of other men: and on the other side, celerity of fancy makes the thoughts less steady than is necessary to discern exactly between right and wrong.
Leviathan 2007
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Frugality, though in poor men a virtue, maketh a man unapt to achieve such actions as require the strength of many men at once: for it weakeneth their endeavour, which to be nourished and kept in vigour by reward.
Leviathan 2007
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Inconstant they are in all their actions, vertiginous, restless, unapt to resolve of any business, they will and will not, persuaded to and fro upon every small occasion, or word spoken: and yet if once they be resolved, obstinate, hard to be reconciled.
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And although this phantasy of ours be a subordinate faculty to reason, and should be ruled by it, yet in many men, through inward or outward distemperatures, defect of organs, which are unapt, or otherwise contaminated, it is likewise unapt, or hindered, and hurt.
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That of body is nothing but a kind of benumbing laziness, intermitting exercise, which, if we may believe [1547] Fernelius, causeth crudities, obstructions, excremental humours, quencheth the natural heat, dulls the spirits, and makes them unapt to do any thing whatsoever.
bilby commented on the word unapt
"The veins unfill'd, our blood is cold, and then
We pout upon the morning, are unapt
To give or to forgive..."
- William Shakespeare, 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus'.
August 29, 2009