SKIP TO CONTENT

ill-mannered

Someone who's ill-mannered is rude. It would be ill-mannered to show up an hour late to your cousin's wedding reception with a carful of your (uninvited) friends.

If you act in an impolite, ungracious, or discourteous way, you'll be thought of as ill-mannered. It's ill-mannered to cut in front of people in line, to take a subway seat where an elderly person was getting ready to sit, or to invite everyone in your class except one person to your birthday party. Ill-mannered adds the prefix ill-, "badly," to mannered, "having manners," from manner, "way of doing things."

Definitions of ill-mannered
  1. adjective
    socially incorrect in behavior
    impolite
    not polite
Cite this entry
Style:
MLA
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago

Copy citation
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘ill-mannered'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback
Word Family