Home British & World English unpleasantness

Definition of unpleasantness in English:

unpleasantness

noun

mass noun

1The state or quality of being unpleasant.
‘they did not look like thugs, but their faces were stamped with unpleasantness’
- ‘The experimental conditions included a baseline restful state followed by hypnotic relaxation alone and by hypnotic relaxation with suggestions for altered pain unpleasantness.’
- ‘I hesitantly tried another piece and it was just as unappetizing the second time around, a bitter sting that was metallic in its unpleasantness.’
- ‘Rather, ‘feelings’ refers to a very specific quality: pleasantness, unpleasantness, or neutrality in an experience.’
- ‘There's a lot of pain, suffering and general unpleasantness in this world.’
- ‘No other night of the year manages the unique combination of misery, discomfort, expense and sheer downright unpleasantness.’
- ‘The first couple of Harry Potters are honourable contributions to the repertory of school-stories of an old fashioned kind, with the added frisson of knowing that the world beyond Hogwarts contains a great deal of unpleasantness.’
- ‘It would be petty and stupid, they contend, to overlook the creative quality of their work because of some unpleasantness which the great world revolution must necessarily bring with it.’
- ‘The visuals of the two of them put over a mood of desperation and unpleasantness that doesn't come over in the records so much - its better just to hear it.’
- ‘When partnered with Herring, he adopts a snide, sharp persona to contrast with his sidekick's village idiot act, and the resulting personality clash provides ample opportunity for eloquent unpleasantness.’
- ‘And I don't like just plain unpleasantness or just plain painful stuff.’
- ‘Looking back on my life until now it has largely been hard work with a lot of upset and unpleasantness, especially in my adult years.’
- ‘Less attention to pain can result in a reduction in perceived pain intensity and unpleasantness, and can also reduce the amount of time patients spend thinking about their pain.’
- ‘The affective dimension of pain includes both the immediate feelings of unpleasantness associated with the painful sensation and negative emotions evoked by the pain.’
- ‘Pain intensity and unpleasantness were rated by subjects on visual analogue scales in response to painful electrical stimuli, delivered in random order in five ascending intensities.’
- ‘This quiet world of the monks is not without unpleasantness - there is heartache, murder, an accident and suicide.’
- ‘Because people associate Hobbes with unpleasantness, nastiness, and life-and-death contests, they start to use the phrase to refer to any choice that has some of those characteristics.’
- ‘There will be much pain and unpleasantness in the weeks and months ahead.’
- ‘In the same vein, Malkin gives only passing mention to such unpleasantness as shootings of internees by camp guards but discusses at length the amenities offered in the camps and the petty complaints of some internees.’
- ‘Despite any unpleasantness and pain, you must acknowledge the suffering you have caused and develop a concern for creating an environment of sanity.’
- ‘Pain's unpleasantness provides the motivation for adaptive, life-preserving responses.’
trauma, pain, painfulness, agony, grief
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1. 1.1 Bad feeling or quarrelling between people.
  ‘she hated unpleasantness, though she wouldn't back down from a fight’
  ‘There was a moment of unpleasantness when Yorkshire thought Parthiv was caught behind on 98 but umpire Graham Burgess gave him not out and some chuntering between the sides continued throughout the remainder of the day.’
  ‘There were vultures in the air and hyenas on the ground however; those who dared not to speak out loud while his father was alive. With his passing they finally found a voice that spoke with unpleasantness and malice.’
  ‘Forget the aggression and the unpleasantness of the radical right or the Islamic hordes to the East.’
  ‘Handing the belt to his son Blade, he sat on a bench clearly contemplating his new heel status and the unpleasantness that went along with it.’
  ‘I understand that people feel like - I mean, with so much hatred and unpleasantness in the world, why would you want to get in the way of people who love each other marrying each other?’
  ‘I'm sure that if Harry McGuigan of North Lanarkshire Council had known about end-of-year flexibilities, all that unpleasantness over the Direct Labour Organisations could have been avoided.’
  ‘Bottling up feelings would only worsen problems and create unpleasantness.’
  ‘It would assist in controlling the currently very high level of unpleasantness, aggression, and verbal abuse that simply would not be tolerated in any classroom, playground, workplace, or home in this country.’
  ‘Clearly, Pater disciplined himself to erase any trace of ill-temper or unpleasantness from his speech and writing.’
  ‘A bit over and I will have to ask for change, and I would hate there to be any unpleasantness.’
  ‘I was afraid to complain loudly in case I caused any unpleasantness between myself and the staff, and for my husband.’
  ‘This time there was no media coverage as there was no public hostility or unpleasantness.’
  ‘Because she's in Auckland, and because it had been planned that I was going up there this coming weekend, I felt that I had to confront the issue right now, and avoid any unpleasantness later in the week or when I got up there.’
  ‘The wealthy Pellisi's voice was dripping with unpleasantness and dislike.’
  ‘I didn't really want to witness shouting and other unpleasantness, but I did think Stewart missed a good opportunity to put some of the obvious flaws in the conservative case on the issue to one of its more powerful proponents.’
  ‘It is time to put behind all the disappointment and unpleasantness of the past 12 months, and get ready to begin the New Year with a resolution to always look at the brighter side of life.’
  ‘Moments of pleasantness elicit a desire for more, moments of unpleasantness give rise to aversion, and moments of neutrality are opportunities to fall asleep.’
  ‘I hate to bring up any unpleasantness but you were on ‘The View’ last week.’
  ‘I'm sure Clarke was well aware of what was to follow from his decisions - he's willing to risk a lot of long-term unpleasantness - because his book reads like it was written by a true civil servant.’
  ‘One of the problems of our current political scene is that the atmosphere is often of hostility and unpleasantness feeding on themselves.’
  unkindness, unfriendliness, disagreeableness, hostility, rudeness, churlishness, spite, spitefulness, malice, maliciousness, meanness, mean-spiritedness, ill temper, ill nature, bad temper, bad-temperedness, viciousness, ill humour, malevolence, venom, venomousness, malignancy, cantankerousness, cruelty, abusiveness
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