unbecoming

Etymology

From un- + becoming. Compare Middle English unbicomelich (“unbecoming”).

adj

1. Not flattering, attractive or appropriate.
   A very small expensive black toque was hideously unbecoming to the yellow, toad-like face beneath it. 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 3, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 25
   ―Lily: “Don’t stare so much. It’s unbecoming. It makes you look like a country bumpkin.” 12 July 2017, Moe! Ninja Girls, Japan: NTT Solmare, iOS, Android, scene: Season 7, Chapter 7, Part 2
   She wore a rather unbecoming hairstyle.
2. Not in keeping with the expected standards of one's position.
   He was accused of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.

verb

1. present participle and gerund of unbecome

noun

1. The process by which something unbecomes.
   By tracing the turns from U.S. to Japan to China, we can see that becoming American, the classic ethnic American narrative, itself opens to further becomings and unbecomings and rebecomings that address mobility and ethnicization […] 2007, Una Chung, Contagion of Living