unwholesome

From Middle English unholsom; equivalent to un- +‎ wholesome.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌənˈhoʊlsəm/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌənˈhəʊlsəm/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -əʊlsəm
• Hyphenation: un‧whole‧some

unwholesome (comparative more unwholesome, superlative most unwholesome)

1. Not wholesome; unfavorable to health; unhealthful.

   unwholesome air, or food

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 4:

     Caliban: As wicked dewe, as ere my mother bruſh'd / With Rauens feather from vnwholeſome Fen / Drop on you both : A Southweſt blow on yee, / And bliſter you all ore.

   • 1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Heath's Book of Beauty, 1833, The Enchantress, page 17:

     Alas! he mastered not his destiny: I have said before, his ashes are in yonder urn. A few unwholesome dews on a summer night were mightier than all his science.

2. Not sound; tainted; defective.
   • 2022, Ian McEwan, Lessons, page 184:

     There was something indefinably unwholesome about him. Something lean and snakelike.

3. Indicating unsound health; characteristic of or suggesting an unsound condition, physical or mental; repulsive; offensive.

• wholesome

• unwholesomely
• unwholesomeness

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “unwholesome”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.