unrewarding

adjective

un·​re·​ward·​ing ˌən-ri-ˈwȯr-diŋ How to pronounce unrewarding (audio)
: failing to provide satisfaction or a reward : not rewarding
unrewarding work
unrewardingly adverb

Examples of unrewarding in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Some or all of the Arab countries involved would likely demand that Israel halt settlement expansion on the West Bank or make other concessions to the Palestinians as the price of their participation in a difficult and unrewarding mission. Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times, 15 Oct. 2023 Cerebral men of letters often make unrewarding screen protagonists, spending too much time in their own heads to fully engage as characters. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019 But if long Covid is really a form of ME/CFS, this approach will likely be unrewarding. Steven Phillips, STAT, 14 Sep. 2023 Baseball is a cruel, often unrewarding, game of inches. Nick Alvarez | Nalvarez@al.com, al, 10 June 2023 Strategic incompetence is not necessarily a conscious choice so much as a reflexive rejection of activity that feels unrewarding and unimportant. Karla L. Miller, Washington Post, 20 Apr. 2023 Maddie stands at the center of what is essentially a dissolving home, sending money to her mother, tending to her father and working a dull, unrewarding job at a theater company. Diana Abu-Jaber, Washington Post, 8 Feb. 2023 The roles other than Fedora and Loris are thoroughly unrewarding. Zachary Woolfe, New York Times, 1 Jan. 2023 Of course, that dissonance is part of the novel’s parody, too, and maybe why White Noise feels so confounding—though not unrewarding—to watch. David Sims, The Atlantic, 31 Dec. 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unrewarding.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1651, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of unrewarding was in 1651

Dictionary Entries Near unrewarding

Cite this Entry

“Unrewarding.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unrewarding. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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