Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The quality of being ignoble, in any sense; low birth or condition; humble station; ignobleness; meanness.
  • noun The body of persons not of noble rank; the commons: opposed to nobility.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete Ignobleness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state or condition of being ignoble.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the quality of being ignoble

Etymologies

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Examples

  • But regarded purelyfrom the standpoint of blood, such a development was profoundly unfortunate: more and more, the nobility lost the racial basis for its existence, andin large measure the designation of 'ignobility' would have been more suitablefor it.

    Mein Kampf Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945 1925

  • This week on the most excellent Pseudopod horror podcast, David Nickle's fantastic story "The Inevitability of Earth," a tale about the ignobility of those who would fly:

    Boing Boing 2009

  • If Truthfulness is the Last Taboo, in the meantime the lowest common denominator aspect of our culture sensationalizes other taboos -- like sex of course, even shrouding ignobility over the very requisite deed that continually incarnates us into the continuum of expression -- to manipulate emotions into profit.

    Sebastian Siegel: Letting Go to Hold On 2010

  • What wasn't publicized was the ignobility of young Merritt's poverty.

    A Girl's Legs Stirring The Air 2010

  • If Truthfulness is the Last Taboo, in the meantime the lowest common denominator aspect of our culture sensationalizes other taboos -- like sex of course, even shrouding ignobility over the very requisite deed that continually incarnates us into the continuum of expression -- to manipulate emotions into profit.

    Sebastian Siegel: Letting Go to Hold On 2010

  • Wretchedness is a contemptible state whose very ignobility motivates ennobling improvement.

    A Week To Go Steven Barnes 2009

  • Of course, that conflict had as much ignobility and moral ambiguity as any.

    We'll Meet Again Matthew Guerrieri 2007

  • Of course, that conflict had as much ignobility and moral ambiguity as any.

    Archive 2007-05-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2007

  • I cannot get enough of Gods falling from their thrones and tumbling, like scarred dice, to the flames of ignobility.

    Susie Bright: That Dog Won't Hunt, But He Sure is Kinky 2008

  • We MUST educate the young, the vulnerable, the at risk, that military service and war is not a career, nor is it a dignified cause for one's country; it is an ignominious act of ignobility, where the fate that awaits you is death, being maimed, mentally disabled or a murderer.

    Wexler: A Lone Hero at the Petraeus/Crocker Hearings 2008

Comments

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  • Of actual ignobility too proud

    To admit brotherhood, and sickened

    —Robert Fitzgerald, 'Adulescentia'

    Another of those words that obviously must exist but are virtually never seen in actual use.

    March 23, 2009