Unsparing

adj

adj ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Without sparing; liberal; profuse; thorough.

    "Only when one has seen a Control Office at first-hand does one realise the vast amount of unsparing but largely unsung work that is behind the eventual publication, perhaps, of a paragraph in this journal's "Motive Power Miscellany" recording the appearance, within hours of the complete blockage of a main line, of many of its trains, passenger and freight, on routes quite foreign to them; and of effective emergency services either side of the disaster area."

  2. 2
    Pulling no punches; brutal as opposed to politic.

    "[Giovanni's Room] is clearly written out of interior torment, and is an unsparing account of a man fighting against himself. It is certainly not a pleasant book, and David, the narrator, is not "nice" […] but even in its negative ending, it makes a strong statement in favor of self knowledge and accepting one's sexuality."

Adjective
  1. 1
    not forbearing; ruthless wordnet
  2. 2
    very generous wordnet

Example

More examples

"He is not so much a humorist as a satirist of the Thackeray type — unsparing in his denunciation of shams, affectations, and flimsy pretences of all kinds."

Etymology

From un- + sparing.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.