untrustworthiest
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Senses: examples: text: And the ladies and gentlemen who are so very anxious to know the orthography of certain words! How often am I to repeat that I never learned to spell, that I am unacquainted with the laws of English spelling, and that I am consequently the untrustworthiest of guides on the matter of orthography.
ref: 1884 July 12, G. A. S., “Echoes of the Week”, in The Illustrated London News, volume LXXXV, number 2360, London, page 27, column 3:
text: The Tiriotes, from ancient custom, wear large linen cloths, slung around their ugly heads, in the form of a turban, in order to have the appearance of an “Adamy,” a quiet, good man. But in reality they are the greatest thieves, the untrustworthiest crowd around, and are known as such everywhere.
ref: 1887, G. Schumacher, “Arabic Proverbs. Used to characterize some villages in the District of Akka.”, in Palestine Exploration Fund. Patron—The Queen. Quarterly Statement for 1887., London: Society’s Office, […], and by Richard Bentley & Son, […], page 193:
text: “Oh, I don’t know, my lad. Sometimes, and sometimes there's fair breezes. But lor’ bless you, it’s the same everywhere. Weather’s about the untrustworthiest thing I know.”
ref: 1900, Farmer’s Advocate and Home Magazine, volume 35, page 237, column 3:
text: Why did George Sand exercise such a spell over men of genius? Was she ever quite in earnest except when she said to Sainte-Beuve, untrustworthiest of confidants, yet quaintly popular in that capacity: “I have never met the being with whom I could live and die; and if I could, I should not know how to keep him”?
ref: 1911, The Lady’s Realm: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume 29, page 472, column 1:
text: "I was born at night, second and third / Of January in that untrustworthiest of years / 'Ninety-something-or-other and the centuries / Compass me with fire."
ref: 1979, For John Riley, Grosseteste Press, page 31:
text: Fritz Dümpfelleu—that untrustworthiest of narrators, yet does he not perhaps hit the mark here?
ref: 2001, Arno Schmidt, translated by John E. Woods, The School for Atheists: A Novella = Comedy in 6 Acts, Green Integer, →ISBN, page 8:
text: The law-enforcing agency itself has become the most corrupt and the untrustworthiest force in the country.
ref: 2002, A Rigged Election: An Illegitimate Government: Bangladesh Election 2001, Centre for Research and Information, page 79:
text: At the time of his search, on-line car sites functioned only as lead generators for local dealers, requiring him to close the sale of his car the old-fashioned way: haggling at the dealership with the untrustworthiest of people—a car salesman.
ref: 2002, Charles W. Lamb, Jr.; Joseph H. Hair; Carl McDaniel, Marketing, 6th edition, Mason, Oh.: South-Western College Publishing, Thomson Learning Inc., →ISBN, page 419, column 1:
text: Nor could the Chief Magistrate, who had no high opinion of the fifth Baron Bligh, considering him an unconscionable rake as well as the untrustworthiest of men.
ref: 2002, Maggie MacKeever, chapter 2, in The Baroness of Bow Street, [Belgrave House], published 2010, →ISBN:
text: Unfortunately, the good ship PLS Legacy has an especially scurvy crew of untrustworthy creatures. (The untrustworthiest of the lot: Scroop, a hissing, spider-like villain voiced by Michael Wincott.)
ref: 2002 November 27, Joe Leydon, “Planetary ‘Treasure’”, in The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, Calif., page 28A, columns 4–5:
text: Disgusted by Chester’s offer, Marlow instead provides Jim with a letter of recommendation to a friend who owns a rice mill in a distant eastern port, vouching for Jim’s integrity as if he had not been publicly branded the untrustworthiest man of the moment.
ref: 2003, Yael Halevi-Wise, “The Rhetoric of Anxiety in Conrad’s Lord Jim”, in Interactive Fictions: Scenes of Storytelling in the Novel (Contributions to the Study of World Literature →ISSN; 123), Westport, Conn.; London: Praeger, Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., →ISBN, page 111:
text: They will whine and cower, / Backbite you into the most heartless, unfeeling / Wretch the world has ever known / The most untrustworthiest son of a bitch / The most thankless, loving serf of humanity / Most sweetest, kindest, cut-throat whatever / Until you are happy.
ref: 2004, Lorenzo Thomas, Dancing on Main Street, Minneapolis, Minn.: Coffee House Press, →ISBN, page 37:
text: I speak of course of Prime Minister Paul / The untrustworthiest snake-oiler of all.
ref: 2005 December 18, Wayne Eyre, “A paean to Paul: Reflections on the campaign — with a seasonal flare”, in Calgary Herald, Calgary, Alta., page A15, column 5:
text: They have proven to be one of the untrustworthiest parties with the public purse ever.
ref: 2005 December 28, J. D. Livingstone, “Perfect time of year to get ‘fleeced and snowed’”, in The Standard, St. Catharines, Ont., page A14:
text: Imagine I’m the untrustworthiest jerk you ever met and I state “two plus two equals four.” Is my statement wrong because I flunked algebra? My steady character is irrelevant to the truth or falsehood of my arithmetic.
ref: 2008 February 19, Garth Mihalcheon, “Ad hominem”, in Calgary Herald, Calgary, Alta., page A15:
text: He knew that of all the creatures God had put into this world, humans were the untrustworthiest and the meanest, another sentiment his son would share.
ref: 2013, William H[oward] Gass, Middle C: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, pages 8–9:
text: Due to Marcions’s^([sic]) meddling with with^([sic]) the Gospel According to Luke, it is the untrustworthiest of all the Gospels, being it was the darling of the Marcionite Churches and the Pagan and Gentile converts.
ref: 2014, E. Christopher Reyes, “*Marcion”, in In His Name, volume IVC (Who Wrote the Gospels?), Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 138:
text: In 2001, he was deemed the untrustworthiest man in Hollywood thanks to his drugs convictions, but our Elt gave him a gig, paving the way for a reborn career and destroying all chances of a sequel to Weird Science.
ref: 2015 March 10, Johnny Dee, “Watch your mouth: Tom Hanks and other lip-synching movie stars”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2015:
text: Then comes the most aggravating part of “Classic Man,” which turns Jidenna — a calm, decent human being by all measures — into the untrustworthiest man in existence.
ref: 2015 August 12, Brandon Caldwell, “Jidenna's "Classic Man": Why This Song Sucks”, in Houston Press, archived from the original on 15 Aug 2015:
text: Their decision to campaign as the ‘People’s Champion’ against a series of enemies (the EU, the metropolitan-liberal elite, an out of touch Parliament and more) who were thwarting the ‘People’s Will’ was an obvious political choice and a profoundly effective one. It kept alive, and even revitalised, core sentiments and antagonisms from the 2016 Referendum. It reminded people that ‘politicians couldn’t be trusted’ (except, of course, the untrustworthiest of them all …).
ref: 2020 spring, John Clarke, “Building the ‘Boris’ bloc: angry politics in turbulent times”, in Soundings, number 74, London, →DOI, page 119:
glosses: superlative form of untrustworthy: most untrustworthy