Ingrate
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An ungrateful or unpleasant person.
"But Mr Pecksniff, dismissing all ephemeral considerations of social pleasure and enjoyment, concentrated his meditations on the one great virtuous purpose before him, of casting out that ingrate and deceiver, whose presence yet troubled his domestic hearth, and was a sacrilege upon the altars of his household gods."
- 2 a person who shows no gratitude wordnet
- 1 Ungrateful. obsolete, poetic
"Many of theſe might ſeem ingrate and unkind children, that vvill no better acknovvledge and recogniſe their parents in vvords and outvvard pretence, but abrenounce and caſt them off, as though they hated them as dogs and ſerpents."
- 2 Unfriendly; unpleasant. obsolete
Example
More examples"Many of theſe might ſeem ingrate and unkind children, that vvill no better acknovvledge and recogniſe their parents in vvords and outvvard pretence, but abrenounce and caſt them off, as though they hated them as dogs and ſerpents."
Etymology
First attested in 1393, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English ingrat, from Latin ingrātus (“disagreeable”), from in- (“not”) + grātus (“pleasing”). Cognate with French ingrat.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.