Unhappy Meaning
/ʌnˈhæpi/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjNot happy; sad.
adjNot satisfied; unsatisfied.
Sentence Examples
I'd be unhappy, but I wouldn't kill myself.
For all his wealth, he is unhappy.
The customer was unhappy with the quality of the service provided.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The little girl was ____ because her favorite toy broke into pieces.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She was very ____ with the service at the restaurant and decided to write a letter of complaint to the manager today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English unhappy; equivalent to un- + happy.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"A moment of time may make us unhappy forever."
— 1728, John Gay, The Beggar's Opera:
"The pointed shaft of the cart had entered the breast of the unhappy Prince like a sword, and from the wound his life's blood was spouting in a stream, and falling with a hiss into the road."
— 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 56:
"The people, if they are not strangely bent
Against our welfare, never will consent
To this unhappy match, foreboding ill:
What's it to us, if th' adverse nation will?"
— 1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC:
"A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments,
By you unhappied and disfigured clean"
— 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act 3, scene 1]:
"In the greate desire I have unto your grace's service, nothing has more unhappied me than the wante of opportunitie in which I might expresse the character of my harte that onlie takes of your impressions."
— 1625, Sir John Eliot, Letter to the duke of Buckingham:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The little girl was ____ because her favorite toy broke into pieces.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She was very ____ with the service at the restaurant and decided to write a letter of complaint to the manager today.