unvarnished

adjective un·var·nished \ ˌən-ˈvär-nisht \

Definition of unvarnished

1 a :not adorned or glossed :plain, straightforward

told the unvarnished truth

b :artless, frank

the unvarnished candor of old people and children
—Janet Flanner

2 :not coated with or as if with varnish :crude, unfinished

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Examples of unvarnished in a Sentence

If you want my unvarnished opinion, the movie stinks.
I'm telling the unvarnished truth.

Recent Examples of unvarnished from the Web

One senior Republican congressional aide who is in regular contact with the White House said there is more confidence among lawmakers that Kelly is communicating their concerns in unvarnished terms to the president.

— margaret talev, Bloomberg.com, "General Kelly Commands the White House, But He Can’t Control Trump," 24 Aug. 2017
For one thing, video — whether from police body cameras or the ubiquitous cellphones of random bystanders — can offer an unvarnished view of a Baltimore many of us don’t ever witness for ourselves.

— baltimoresun.com, "Another day, another suspicious police body-camera video," 24 Aug. 2017
After all, the film was unapologetically violent, unvarnished in its depiction of sexuality, and borderline nihilistic.

— chris nashawaty, PEOPLE.com, "They're Young, They're in Love, and They Kill People: How Bonnie and Clyde Revolutionized Hollywood," 12 Aug. 2017
Cara is also committed to presenting herself in an unvarnished down-to-earth and true-to-life fashion.

— john adamian, courant.com, "Alessia Cara At Foxwoods," 12 July 2017
But the ever-honest and unvarnished Moore also has found himself on press blackouts at various times in his career for being too forthcoming.

— tod palmer, kansascity, "Mizzou’s J’Mon Moore eager to build off 2016, join program’s elite ranks," 12 July 2017
It was slapped with the Russia's foreign agent label last year, a de facto acknowledgment that the government doesn't approve of its unvarnished takes on Russian public opinion.

— david filipov, Washington Post, "For Russians, Stalin is the ‘most outstanding’ figure in world history, followed by Putin," 26 June 2017
The raggedness of Keen’s unvarnished bray was offset by stellar fiddle and mandolin accents.

— bill brownlee, kansascity.com, "Dwight Yoakam and Robert Earl Keen perform before Willie Nelson is rained out," 18 June 2017
Backed by aggressive financial services interests including Illinois' two largest banking associations, this proposal is a prime example of anti-regulation overkill and unvarnished industry clout.

— robert reed, chicagotribune.com, "This new banking bill would make consumers pay," 13 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'unvarnished.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of unvarnished

1605

unvarnished Synonyms

Synonyms

bald, bare, naked, plain-vanilla, simple, unadorned, undecorated, unembellished, unornamented, plain

Antonyms

adorned, decorated, embellished, fancy, ornamented

Related Words

denuded, divested, stripped; au naturel, earthy, elemental, homely, natural, unsophisticated; forthright, honest, modest, unpretentious; clean; antiseptic, austere, bleak, severe, spartan, stark; minimalist; inconspicuous, muted, restrained, sober, subdued, toned (down), unobtrusive; conservative, quiet, understated

Near Antonyms

flamboyant, flashy, garish, gaudy, glittery, glitzy, loud, ostentatious, showy, splashy, swank (or swanky), tawdry; bedizened, florid, lurid, ornate; exaggerated, overdecorated, overdone, overwrought; baroque, elaborate, extravagant, ornate, rococo; appareled (or apparelled), arrayed, bedecked, decked-out, dressed, embroidered, garnished, trimmed

UNVARNISHED Defined for English Language Learners

unvarnished

adjective

Definition of unvarnished for English Language Learners

: plain and direct
: not covered with varnish

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