IGNOBLE

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Completely lacking nobility in character or quality or purpose

Example:

I think it a less evil that some criminals should escape than that the government should play an ignoble part

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

base; mean; meanspirited (having or showing an ignoble lack of honor or morality)

currish (base and cowardly)

Also:

cowardly; fearful (lacking courage; ignobly timid and faint-hearted)

contemptible (deserving of contempt or scorn)

dishonorable; dishonourable (lacking honor or integrity; deserving dishonor)

Attribute:

grandeur; magnanimousness; nobility; nobleness (the quality of elevation of mind and exaltation of character or ideals or conduct)

Antonym:

noble (having or showing or indicative of high or elevated character)

Derivation:

ignobleness (the quality of being ignoble)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not of the nobility

Example:

untitled civilians

Synonyms:

ignoble; ungentle; untitled

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

lowborn (of humble birth or origins)

Derivation:

ignobleness (the quality of being ignoble)

Credits

Context examples:

Down below where he lived was the ignoble, and he wanted to purge himself of the ignoble that had soiled all his days, and to rise to that sublimated realm where dwelt the upper classes.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Then, last of all, that pale clear-cut face, that sweet clear voice, with its high thrilling talk of the deathlessness of glory, of the worthlessness of life, of the pain of ignoble joys, and of the joy which lies in all pains which lead to a noble end.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He had entitled the story Adventure, and it was the apotheosis of adventure—not of the adventure of the storybooks, but of real adventure, the savage taskmaster, awful of punishment and awful of reward, faithless and whimsical, demanding terrible patience and heartbreaking days and nights of toil, offering the blazing sunlight glory or dark death at the end of thirst and famine or of the long drag and monstrous delirium of rotting fever, through blood and sweat and stinging insects leading up by long chains of petty and ignoble contacts to royal culminations and lordly achievements.