Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not neat and tidy; sloppy.
  • adjective Disorderly and unorganized.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Untimely; unseasonable.
  • Improper; dishonest.
  • Nottidy; not neat; not orderly or clean.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Unseasonable; untimely.
  • adjective Not tidy or neat; slovenly.

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

  • adjective sloppy
  • adjective unorganized

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective not neat and tidy

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

un- +‎ tidy

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Examples

  • ‘Please put away your toys,’ I said to Emilia as I dragged my pathetic self out of the room, tripping over the random dismembered doll parts and stray bits of crafting materials that she keeps in untidy piles throughout the house, ‘otherwise I’ll have to ask Daddy to throw it all away.’

    Still Life With Chucky | Her Bad Mother 2009

  • "Early in the term the untidy, neglectful school yards were converted into gardens, farmers supplying the seed, and when no mule could be procured for ploughing, four boys were harnessed to draw the plough, while another guided it.

    Home Missions in Action Edith H. Allen

  • She knew she was untidy, and gave herself all pains to cure the fault; but it went beyond her; for she simply did not know what Annemarie would call untidy next.

    Two Tales of Old Strasbourg 2003

  • Even Miss Peyton's features might have been called untidy, if such a term could be used in connection with a countenance whose every line was aristocratic.

    The Comings of Cousin Ann Emma Speed Sampson 1907

  • My husband was dreadfully untidy, which is much worse. '

    Love at Second Sight Ada Leverson 1897

  • Someone once described the Fabian Socialists as "more grieved by the world's mess than hurt by the world's wrongs," and indeed the Fabians often seemed to look upon England as a kind of untidy house which they wree to put in order.

    The Drama of Distributism: The Later Battles 2008

  • He would have told his Secretary of Defense that the spectacle of looters stripping government buildings down to their concrete skeletons wasn't the kind of untidy freedom the United States could tolerate.

    Fishing for a Way to Change the World 2008

  • Donald Rumsfeld said that the riots were "untidy" because democracy was untidy.

    David Bromwich: Occupation and Terror 2008

  • It's still an "untidy" situation for job hunters, as it will probably continue to be for some time.

    kevynwight Diary Entry kevynwight 2003

  • They use words like "ad hoc" and, you know, "untidy" and that you move from issue to issue and there isn't the kind of sustained interest in it.

    Interview Of The President By Joe Klein Of The New Yorker ITY National Archives 2000

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