immeritorious
English
Etymology
im- (“un-”, “not”) + meritorious (“worthy or deserving of merit”); compare the Latin immeritōrius
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ĭmĕrĭtôʹrĭəs, IPA(key): /ɪmɛɹɪˈtɔːɹɪəs/
Adjective
immeritorious (comparative more immeritorious, superlative most immeritorious)
- Unworthy of merit; not deserving of merit; not meritorious.
- 1883: Mind, volume 8, page 24 (B. Blackwell)
- Their acceptance indeed, as a formula, may show a willing and tractable spirit, and they may to that extent have a value : but such acceptance differs of course from belief in being admittedly a voluntary act, and not a mere immeritorious and reluctant yielding to the brute weight of evidence.
- 2004: Damien Géradin, Modernisation and Enlargement: Two Major Challenges for EC Competition Law, page 137 (Intersentia; →ISBN, 9050954324)
- As long as the defence is credible and can be reasonably substantiated so that the counterclaim is not evidently immeritorious, the attacked party has little to lose, and may gain time.
- 1883: Mind, volume 8, page 24 (B. Blackwell)
Derived terms
- immeritoriously
Related terms
- “†immeriˈtorious, a.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)