Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not previously known; unknown.
  • adjective Without precedent; unparalleled.
  • adjective Highly offensive; outrageous or brazen.

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

  • adjective New; unprecedented; unparalleled.

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

  • adjective Previously unknown; unprecedented

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

  • adjective previously unknown

Etymologies

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Examples

  • According to Erenberg, they “fostered an unheard-of casualness between partners, permitted greater options in holds and distances, and symbolized the high value placed on mutual heterosexual intimacy and attraction.”

    A Renegade History of the United States Thaddeus Russell 2010

  • Over the course of your ten years as the New Labour Chancellor you systematically destroyed our gold reserves, increased debt to unheard-of levels, taxed Middle England into penury and presided over the complete collapse of pension funds.

    Archive 2009-06-01 Dungeekin 2009

  • I wrote for seven hours today, which is an unheard-of stretch of time for me.

    Jennie Nash: The Making of a Novel: The 7-Hour Stretch Jennie Nash 2010

  • He called this phenomenon "a truly alarming spectacle, if we consider not only how extensively attacks are spreading but also their unheard-of numerical proportion, and the fact that they receive widespread legal approval and the involvement of certain sectors of health-care personnel."

    Pope John Paul II 2009

  • I wrote for seven hours today, which is an unheard-of stretch of time for me.

    Jennie Nash: The Making of a Novel: The 7-Hour Stretch Jennie Nash 2010

  • Over the course of your ten years as the New Labour Chancellor you systematically destroyed our gold reserves, increased debt to unheard-of levels, taxed Middle England into penury and presided over the complete collapse of pension funds.

    The Letter The Backbenchers MEANT to Write Dungeekin 2009

  • The consistent quality of such work is, nontheless amazing, as are the many unlikely or unheard-of places where these churches and chapels still stand.

    Some Images of Early 20th Century American Liturgical Architecture 2009

  • Other blacks there were on board, from unheard-of far places, and when the white man spoke to them, they tore the long feather from Mauki's hair, cut that same hair short, and wrapped about his waist a lava-lava of bright yellow calico.

    MAUKI 2010

  • But when the De Lacey family is imprisoned for assisting in his escape, "the treacherous Turk, for whom he and his family endured such unheard-of oppression, on discovering that his deliverer was thus reduced to poverty and impotence, became a traitor to good feeling and honour, and had quitted Italy with his daughter" (II: 6: 15).

    Safie 2010

  • It is beautifully aged, and Mr. Pike is certain that it is some sort of a mild and unheard-of brandy.

    CHAPTER XXXVI 2010

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