as in unfavorable
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Recent Examples of unpropitious
Handing the baton to Harris at this unpropitious time for Democrats is like Napoleon’s handing off his military command to Marshal Ney to conduct the disastrous French retreat from Moscow in 1812, featuring 500,000 French casualties.
—
Armstrong Williams, Baltimore Sun, 23 July 2024
Here are a handful of quick Thesaurus pulls to help paint a picture of how the unit played: unpropitious, cataclysmic, demoralizing, execrable.
—Chris Bumbaca, USA TODAY, 9 Jan. 2023
The exhausted refugees are greeted by a functionary of the Relief Committee with the unpropitious nickname Statistics Babu.
—Parul Sehgal, The New Yorker, 26 Dec. 2022
That will be an unpropitious setting for launching a network: if the teams are unclear on the goal, the risk of confusion is considerable.
—Steve Denning, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2021
JoyFish sits in a strip mall in an unpropitious space that has seen several restaurants come and go.
—Tan Vinh, The Seattle Times, 11 July 2017
Armstrong Williams, Baltimore Sun, 23 July 2024
Here are a handful of quick Thesaurus pulls to help paint a picture of how the unit played: unpropitious, cataclysmic, demoralizing, execrable.
—Chris Bumbaca, USA TODAY, 9 Jan. 2023
The exhausted refugees are greeted by a functionary of the Relief Committee with the unpropitious nickname Statistics Babu.
—Parul Sehgal, The New Yorker, 26 Dec. 2022
That will be an unpropitious setting for launching a network: if the teams are unclear on the goal, the risk of confusion is considerable.
—Steve Denning, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2021
JoyFish sits in a strip mall in an unpropitious space that has seen several restaurants come and go.
—Tan Vinh, The Seattle Times, 11 July 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unpropitious
Adjective
-
On some of the country’s biggest lakes, often hundreds of miles wide with no current, an unfavorable wind made a waterway impassible.—
Outside,
Outside,
7 Feb. 2026
-
That is, clinicians have a duty to restrict the range of clinical options, because medical interventions with unfavorable risk/benefit profiles can set back patients’ health interests rather than protecting or promoting them.—
Torie Bosch,
STAT,
7 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
This is the unpromising backdrop to Keir Starmer's trip to Beijing this week in the first by a British prime minister since Theresa May visited eight years ago.—
Ian King,
CNBC,
28 Jan. 2026
-
In short, the future feels scary and unpromising.—
Kian Bakhtiari,
Forbes.com,
1 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Yet seldom is heard a discouraging word when Darnold assesses what happened in New York, Carolina, San Francisco, or Minnesota.—
Jerry McDonald,
Mercury News,
5 Feb. 2026
-
Their status has been diminished by what has — charitably — been a really discouraging decade, featuring two separate relegations.—
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor,
New York Times,
9 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
The bump was later ruled a penalty, but the disheartening finish had Santos-Griswold considering retirement.—
Aliza Chasan,
CBS News,
4 Feb. 2026
-
If right, their conclusion implies a disheartening lesson amid the otherwise-welcome news.—
Charles Fain Lehman,
The Atlantic,
20 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
From what looked like a hopeless position just a few weeks ago, the subscribers are now off the bottom of the table and gearing up for a potential title challenge.—
Oliver Kay,
New York Times,
30 Jan. 2026
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And if the hypotheticals are not enough to dissuade, history is littered with teams trading away their future for immediate glories, seeing their plans implode, and being left with a ruinous future that becomes a hopeless present while another team reaps the benefits.—
Joseph Dycus,
Mercury News,
30 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
This episode is disappointingly cheerless overall—it’s not frosted, tinsely, glowing, silver with bells and mist, or snowy.—
Jenny Singer,
Glamour,
3 Nov. 2025
-
For three days, things were cheerless for Courtney Williams.—
Mike Cook,
Twin Cities,
28 May 2025
Adjective
-
On the contrary, Democrats in Congress scored a particularly dismal 18 percent approval rating in a Quinnipiac University poll released in mid-December, a record low.—
Mark Leibovich,
The Atlantic,
11 Feb. 2026
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City had 61 per cent possession and their passing accuracy in the final third was 84 per cent before the break compared to Liverpool’s dismal 43 per cent.—
James Pearce,
New York Times,
9 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
The giveaway underscores the lengths restaurants and retailers are going to grab customers’ attention, hoping the dollars will follow, as consumers remain gloomy about the economy and keep a tighter hold on their paychecks.—
Chris Isidore,
CNN Money,
10 Feb. 2026
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This year looks to remain gloomy, Reay said.—
George Avalos,
Mercury News,
10 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Unpropitious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unpropitious. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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