as in insulting
intended to make a person or thing seem of little importance or value
an uncomplimentary description of the town in which the writer grew up
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Recent Examples of uncomplimentary
Neither party admitted to liability and each agreed to refrain from making disparaging, negative or uncomplimentary statements about the other, the document said.
—
Lorraine Mirabella, Baltimore Sun, 29 July 2022
Though the pollen gunk will pass, he's concerned by a contingent of Twitter trolls who've shared uncomplimentary reviews of his recent North American tour.
—Jordan Runtagh, PEOPLE.com, 21 Jan. 2022
Reviews from Rolling Stone and The New York Times were similarly uncomplimentary, and were soon pulled from publication following Lennon's murder.
—Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 9 Dec. 2020
The nation’s capital is replete with lawyers, and thus lawyer jokes (most of them uncomplimentary).
—George Weigel, National Review, 2 Dec. 2019
An uncomplimentary set of players under two head coaches with no plan, Spurs stumbled their way to sixth place somehow, despite their best efforts to finish in the bottom half.
—SI.com, 21 Oct. 2019
In this case, the noun brickbat, meaning a hard object like a brick that’s used as a missile or an uncomplimentary remark, gave us the verb brickbat, meaning to launch one of these physical or verbal weapons.
—June Casagrande, Burbank Leader, 10 Oct. 2019
The recent protests have included uncomplimentary references to la junta — the local name for the oversight board.
—Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2019
Lorraine Mirabella, Baltimore Sun, 29 July 2022
Though the pollen gunk will pass, he's concerned by a contingent of Twitter trolls who've shared uncomplimentary reviews of his recent North American tour.
—Jordan Runtagh, PEOPLE.com, 21 Jan. 2022
Reviews from Rolling Stone and The New York Times were similarly uncomplimentary, and were soon pulled from publication following Lennon's murder.
—Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 9 Dec. 2020
The nation’s capital is replete with lawyers, and thus lawyer jokes (most of them uncomplimentary).
—George Weigel, National Review, 2 Dec. 2019
An uncomplimentary set of players under two head coaches with no plan, Spurs stumbled their way to sixth place somehow, despite their best efforts to finish in the bottom half.
—SI.com, 21 Oct. 2019
In this case, the noun brickbat, meaning a hard object like a brick that’s used as a missile or an uncomplimentary remark, gave us the verb brickbat, meaning to launch one of these physical or verbal weapons.
—June Casagrande, Burbank Leader, 10 Oct. 2019
The recent protests have included uncomplimentary references to la junta — the local name for the oversight board.
—Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for uncomplimentary
Adjective
-
The cast’s sole survivor is Jessica Hecht, who pours miraculous warmth and complexity into her faintly insulting role as Colleen, the head teller, a morally upright spinster goosed by her flirtation with Sonny and the spotlight.—
Emily Nussbaum,
New Yorker,
2 Apr. 2026
-
Drawing parallels between this unpopular war and World War II is ludicrous and insulting.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
2 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Lorincz admitted to calling children in the neighborhood racial slurs and other derogatory terms in the past, according to a police report.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
3 Apr. 2026
-
Which, basically, is a GEEK, or NERD, or BLERD (a Black nerd), or FANBOY, or FANGIRL, none of which are used here in any derogatory way, and are generally interchangeable.—
Christopher Borrelli,
Chicago Tribune,
30 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
In worst-case scenarios, malicious code can exploit weaknesses in your phone, create backdoor access and pull in even more data without your knowledge.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
9 Apr. 2026
-
Over a four-week period starting on December 12, Black Lotus observed more than 290,000 distinct IP addresses sending at least one DNS request to the malicious APT28 DNS resolver.—
Dan Goodin,
ArsTechnica,
8 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
While Trump’s talk of a possible NATO pullout dates back years, the comments to The Telegraph newspaper in the U.K., published Wednesday, were among the clearest and most disparaging yet — suggesting that the fracture has deepened perhaps to a point of no return.—
Jill Lawless,
Los Angeles Times,
1 Apr. 2026
-
The irony is that Trump has been more disparaging and dismissive of the military than any other president.—
Joe Garofoli,
San Francisco Chronicle,
17 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
The epitome of narcissism, demeaning and denigrating others upon their deaths (John McCain, Rob Reiner) who’ve displeased him is nothing new, but the Mueller post sinks to a new low.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
30 Mar. 2026
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To emphasize that new technology can’t change bad behavior, Josh mirrors many of the same demeaning and destructive traits of showrunner Paulie G (Lance Barber), the antagonist of Seasons One and Two.—
Jennifer Silverman,
Rolling Stone,
29 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
This subsided with unusual speed, however, as cricket fans took instead to sharing the self-deprecatory jokes coming over the border.—
The Economist,
The Economist,
22 June 2019
-
Philipps has acquired her 1-million-and-growing Instagram followers through her self-deprecatory humor, raw honesty and vulnerability.—
Sonja Haller,
USA TODAY,
11 July 2018
Adjective
-
British writers’ disdainful accounts of the Rathayatra led, metonymically, to a pejorative sense of a juggernaut as a massive crushing vehicle, which was later extrapolated to its present meaning in English usage.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
31 Mar. 2026
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But even scholars often employ the term as a pejorative, used to describe authoritarian government.—
David A. Graham,
The Atlantic,
26 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
Sara Hershkowitz’s wildly contemptuous Queen adds further soprano glory.—
Classical Music Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
27 Mar. 2026
-
And Alexander Hamilton gets slightly better press than the other two, but he is shown as someone who is brilliant, but self-seeking, arrogant, snobbish, contemptuous of others, and profoundly two-faced.—
David Frum,
The Atlantic,
25 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Uncomplimentary.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/uncomplimentary. Accessed 11 Apr. 2026.
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