undesirable meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

undesirable

adj

/ˌʌndɪˈzaɪɹəbəl/

Etymology From un- + desirable.

Not desirable, objectionable or not likely to please.

There would be no need for any of the animals to come in contact with human beings, which would clearly be most undesirable.1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:
Chronic venous disease includes cosmetically undesirable telangiectasias, varicose veins, venous ulceration, and claudication.2008, Mary E. Klingensmith, The Washington Manual of Surgery, page 327:

1 more example

[David] Brog spoke movingly of his immigrant grandfather as a triumph of the assimilationist model—a Romanian Jew who emigrated to America, learned English, and became a good patriotic American—but failed to mention that the 1924 Immigration Act was designed specifically to exclude Eastern European Jews (among other undesirable European ethnic groups) from entering the country.2019 July 24, David Austin Walsh, “Flirting With Fascism”, in Jewish Currents:

noun

Etymology From un- + desirable.

In plural, Often An undesirable person.

Barskiven Road was The Undesirables. Bad corporation tenants (didn't pay their rents, didn't dig their gardens, let their kids smash up windows) were transferred to The Undesirables until they showed they'd improved. His mother called them scum. Barskiven Road houses had all-metal fittings. Only the window panes could be broken, unless you had a blow-torch. McCann said they'd have them, soon. At the dancing blokes always made jokes if they knew a dame was from The Undesirables. It was supposed to be the worst street in the whole of Kilcaddie.1968, Gordon M. Williams, From Scenes Like These, William Morrow and Company, page 121:
The Matchmaking Festival provided social events for these lonely-hearted pilgrims, and allowed local personages to keep undesirables away from their daughters.2014, Lonely Planet, Best Place to be Today: 365 Things to do & the Perfect Day to do Them, →ISBN:

1 more example

The Camden Bench is not an anomaly: more and more, our cities are being designed to keep those deemed as ‘undesirables’ out. By its very nature this is ‘hostile architecture’—urban design with a focus on exclusion, design that inhibits community and tells us who is welcome and who is not.2020, Noreena Hertz, The Lonely Century, →ISBN: