Ill-received

The Human Stain tells the tale of Coleman Silk, a classics tutor at a fictional Massachusetts college, whose life spirals into chaos after he makes an ill-received remark judged by some as a racial slur.

Being one day ill-received, he left off his visits: Rousseau met him afterwards in the street, and asked him why he did not come.

President Clinton's campaign of contrition began in his ill-received Aug. 17 expression of regret.