Definition
Unflattering refers to something that portrays a person or thing in an unfavorable, negative, or unattractive light.
Pronunciation
US English
UK English
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Excerpts from News Articles
1
In my late 20s and early 30s, I was captain of the England rugby team. But as a teenager, gym knickers and leotards nearly put me off sport and exercise for good. I left school over 25 years ago now, but I can still clearly recall how awkward I felt walking across the school playing fields on my own in a pair of extremely unflattering navy blue pants, past groups of girls huddled together and laughing – I was sure – at my tree trunk legs.
2
What should you do when your partner is posting loads of pictures of your kids and you’d prefer that they didn’t? “The sensible advice,” says Robyn Wilder, HuffPost UK’s parenting columnist, “is to have a measured, reasonable conversation about both your motivations and preferred outcomes, and reach some sort of compromise (eg obscuring your kids’ faces in future photos, or switching to private accounts). The less-sensible advice is to passive-aggressively share a series of unflattering photos of your partner without their consent, and when they inevitably get upset and point this out, counter with “SEE?” Take your pick.
3
“I’d like to thank the sculptor. He’s made a wondrous thing,” she said. She then delivered an impromptu message for Putin, referring to him by his unflattering diminutive nickname, Vova. “Vova, you’ve got nothing to say to us! We don’t need you! Go home!” she declared.
4
Indeed, the early report cards for this Congress have been underwhelming, prompting an unflattering assessment of Mr. McCarthy’s tenure compared with those of past Republican speakers such as Newt Gingrich and John Boehner.
5
The British example suggests several criteria to judge whether cyber power is being used responsibly. The first is what sort of targets are chosen. North Korean hackers once attacked an American film studio because it released an unflattering movie about Kim Jong Un, the country’s leader. Iran has attacked American banks in response to sanctions. Russia has used cyber tactics to meddle in elections in America and Europe.
6
Between the long hours, stressful deadlines and unflattering stereotype, more people are quitting the profession then going into it.
7
Price also singled out a journalist—the local TV news reporter Dion Lim—who had released unflattering e-mails from Price’s office and has interviewed Jasper Wu’s family, who are anxious that they will not see justice. Boudin also had his run-ins with Lim, who is mostly known for posting videos of violent attacks on Asian American Bay Area residents to her social-media accounts.
8
There is no shortage of unflattering revelations. The documents paint a pessimistic picture of Ukraine’s upcoming spring counteroffensive and point to potential problems in air defense and artillery. One report suggests that South Korea balked at supplying weapons to Ukraine. A separate document claims Egypt secretly planned to supply rockets to Russia, while another says NATO ally Turkey was approached by Russia’s notorious Wagner Group, a private military contractor, to help procure supplies.
9
The are plenty of unflattering revelations, including a negative appraisal of Ukraine’s anticipated spring counteroffensive; details on South Korea’s hesitation at supplying weapons to Ukraine; and about how NATO member Turkey was approached by the Wagner Group for weapon supplies. Taken together, the documents suggest that even after the controversy surrounding the National Security Agency leaks by Edward Snowden a decade ago, the United States is still secretly collecting information about its friends.
10
There is no doubt that the sale of personal real estate to Crow should have been reported on the justice’s financial disclosure form for 2014, and there is no excuse for failing to do so. The most logical explanation is that Thomas, whose relationship with Crow had already been the subject of unflattering news reports, wanted to keep it from public view.
11
Feinstein has withstood multiple rounds of calls for her to resign over the years, as unflattering anecdotes emerged from some of her colleagues and others about her memory lapses and her perceived cognitive decline, as well as her visible reliance on her aides in public-facing aspects of her job. But the holdup on judicial nominees created by her absence has changed the tenor of the conversation among Democratic activists.
12
Surely another consideration, though, is that mugshots are humiliating. Mugshot photos are often harshly lit and unflattering . They also signal, like the perp walks, that the person is in police custody, and so suggest that they are guilty.
13
When the group were belting out their 2016 break-up anthem “Shout Out To My Ex”, I bet they weren’t counting on it being quite so prescient about the rupture of their own friendships. Nelson left the group back in 2020, citing struggles with mental health and body image triggered by persistent trolling about her appearance and unflattering comparisons with the rest of the group. And Nelson took some stick – enough stick, in fact, to fill the hour-long BBC documentary Odd One Out in 2019.
14
The book also included allegations that members of the royal family regularly feed the press unflattering information about other members of the House of Windsor in exchange for positive coverage of themselves.
15
In the early 1990s, the premiership of Edith Cresson, the only other woman to have led a government in France, lasted just 10 months and ended in turmoil. April marks 10 months since Borne was appointed prime minister: According to a government adviser who spoke to Playbook Paris, the French president could not afford to fire Borne until now because the optics of another female prime minister beating Cresson’s unflattering record would be too damaging.
16
Even the French reports of President Macron’s state visit to China last week were unflattering . The highly choreographed ceremonies with Xi Jinping – redolent of foreign emissaries paying homage to Chinese emperors – produced nothing on Ukraine, nothing on Taiwan. The only tangible outcome was Beijing graciously extending for another four years the loan of two giant pandas to France’s Beauval zoo.
17
“Numerous seated jurors were either familiar with accusations that Defendant had a history of sexually abusing underage girls, had previously faced legal problems, and/or had seen the highly unflattering docuseries, Surviving R. Kelly, in which several government witnesses had appeared,” the brief said.
18
After months of unflattering revelations about the internal workings of Fox News and the spotlight it gave to false claims about the 2020 presidential election, reporters assembled in Delaware for a defamation trial that would have dramatized in detail the lies that were told about Dominion Voting Systems. At the last minute, Fox agreed to pay the voting machine company a {$}787.5 million settlement.
19
Those critics should remember Fox News is not out of the woods — at least not yet. But let’s first evaluate Tuesday’s settlement. It is not a full victory for Fox — but things certainly could have ended a lot worse. The projected weekslong trial would most likely have generated a daily flow of unflattering reports about Fox News. That’s a lot of grist for both the social media and cable TV mills.
20
Those videos are part of a mountain of unflattering evidence that prosecutors have used to take fresh shots at the group’s leaders after two co-defendants took the risky step to testify, reinforcing the government’s contention that the men engaged in a seditious conspiracy to violently thwart the 2020 presidential election results.
21
“Joe Biden does not have the strength, stamina and mental fortitude required to lead this country,” a narrator says against a backdrop of unflattering pictures of Biden.
22
“Unfortunately, high profile restaurants and popular chefs are often targets for salacious and meritless claims. Nusret is no different,” she continued. “Nusret employs more than a thousand employees around the world – it is a shame that a few old lawsuits and some unflattering remarks should overshadow the tremendous amount of effort that goes into maintaining a global restaurant workforce, particularly through Covid, or the contributions made by Chef Nusret in creating a mobile kitchen to provide over 6,000 hot meals to victims of the tragic earthquakes.”
23
China and Ukraine's leaders speaking this week raises the unflattering prospect of Kyiv and the West having to reject a Chinese proposal to end the Ukraine war, analysts say.
24
A pro-Haley super PAC, SFA Fund Inc., (an abbreviation for “Stand For America”) regularly sends out news roundups to reporters highlighting unflattering coverage about DeSantis, something the group doesn’t do for Trump or Haley’s other primary rivals.
25
Some of the most worrisome requests have come from India, where Narendra Modi’s right-wing government has bombarded Twitter with demands to censor unflattering media portrayals of the governing party. Under Musk, Twitter blocked in India posts sharing a BBC documentary that questioned Modi’s role in a 2002 massacre in the Indian state of Gujarat.
26
Trump used the term "enemy of the people" to refer to some journalists as a way of criticizing unflattering news coverage of his 2016 presidential campaign and his term in the White House.
27
His younger brother, Prince Harry, the disgruntled Duke of Sussex, is not expected to take part in the service. His explosive memoir “Spare,” which became a bestseller early this year, made unflattering claims about the royal family.
28
I often felt that for every extraordinary piece the designer created for Chanel or Fendi — by the time I started in fashion, his career at Chloé was at an end — there would be another clunker of a dress or a suit: unflattering , frumpy, kind of awkward.
29
“The vote that really matters is for the deal on the table developed in conjunction with RMT negotiators but then subsequently rejected out of hand in unflattering terms by their executive committee, without giving their membership a single chance to have their say.
30
Not all the swag is meant to be a celebration of King Charles though. There's coronation toilet paper, T-shirts that read "Not my king" and other items with unflattering and exaggerated caricatures of Charles.
31
As an example, Mongon pointed to a sunscreen launched under the Neutrogena brand. The company designed the product, Neutrogena Invisible, to blend into the skin without creating the unflattering chalky white residue most sunscreens leave behind, eliminating a consumer pain point for applying the protection.
32
This new probe certainly has the potential to unearth some unflattering things about the NFL. Even when the league investigates itself — as was the case when it unearthed racist, homophobic and misogynistic emails sent by former head coach Jon Gruden — the results can still leave a blemish.
33
Since then, they have aired a series of grievances, including allegations that palace officials were insensitive to Meghan’s mental health struggles when she was adjusting to life as a royal, that the Windsors are guilty of unconscious bias in their attitudes on race, and that Camilla leaked unflattering stories about the couple to garner more favorable coverage for herself.
34
The pillorying of celebrities whose cosmetic work has proved unflattering , or who haven’t kept their heightened muscle-tone through pre-dawn workouts and a rigid diet, functions as object lessons for other women.
35
The Cullinan Diamond does not have a kidnapped child or a head of state demanding its return attached to it. But it is still mired in some deeply unflattering British history, including violence, racism and even concentration camps.