unbecoming
part of speech
adjective (unbecoming)
meaning for a pupil
1) (formal) Unbecoming behaviour is not suitable or proper for a person in a certain role, such as a teacher, officer or guest. tree →
2) (old-fashioned) Unbecoming clothes or colours do not look nice on the person wearing them. tree →
sense in the lessons
Found in formal rules and older stories: «conduct unbecoming of an officer», «unbecoming of a young lady». It tells the reader someone behaved below the standard expected of them. In everyday talk people say «not right» or «doesn't suit you».
examples
- Shouting at the referee was unbecoming of a team captain. tree →
- The officer was punished for conduct unbecoming. tree →
- Grandma said the green hat was rather unbecoming. tree →
- Sulking after losing is unbecoming. tree →
- Such rude words are unbecoming in a library. tree →
- The old novel described a dress «most unbecoming». tree →
- It is almost unbecoming to tell the story, but there is no doubt about it." tree →
note
Formal or old-fashioned. Used with «of» or «to», or «for»: «unbecoming of a captain». It does not mean «not becoming» in the sense of «not turning into».
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «unbecoming» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.