unexpected - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Proto-Indo-European *né

Proto-Indo-European *n̥-

Proto-Germanic *un-

Proto-West Germanic *un-

Old English un-

Middle English un-

English unexpected

From un- + expected.

unexpected (comparative more unexpected, superlative most unexpected)

  1. Not expected, anticipated or foreseen.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […] ; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.
    • 1936 February, Isaac Kashdan, “My Best Games of Chess”, in Chess Review:
      Certainly unexpected. The P[awn] is overprotected to the best taste of a Nimzowitsch devotee, and there seems to be no drastic weakness in White's camp to justify this intrusion.
    • 1940 May, “Overseas Railways: Acceleration Proceeds in U.S.A.”, in Railway Magazine, page 298:
      But the latest Santa Fe development, while not spurring the Rock Island to any further acceleration, has drawn fire from a totally unexpected quarter.
    • 2024 August 21, 'Industry Insider', “The value of rail reopenings”, in RAIL, number 1016, page 68:
      Providing accommodation is a significant constraint, and an unexpected development from the restoration of services to Okehampton is demand from the Exeter student population to rent local properties.

not expected, anticipated or foreseen — see also unhoped-for

unexpected (plural unexpecteds)

  1. (rare) Someone or something unexpected.

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