How to Use unkempt in a Sentence

unkempt

adjective
  • She wore rumpled clothing and her hair was unkempt.
  • The salsa bar was unkempt and half-stocked, with no sneeze guard.
    — Mike Sutter, San Antonio Express-News, 9 Dec. 2017
  • The rest of me might have been unkempt, but my hands were ready for the spotlight.
    — Alice Bradley, Redbook, 31 Jan. 2011
  • His face is turned toward her but covered by unkempt brown hair.
    — Vogue, 24 Jan. 2019
  • The man wore a dirty jacket and rubber boots, and had unkempt hair.
    — Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025
  • Dense planting doesn't have to look wild or unkempt, West notes.
    — Rachel Silva, Martha Stewart, 12 June 2026
  • That shouldn’t happen to anyone, even unkempt cheaters.
    — Emma Specter, Vogue, 27 May 2026
  • The dog is too thin, his fur is unkempt, and to top it all off, his owner leaves him outside all year round.
    — Harriette Cole, Mercury News, 7 May 2026
  • Clothes that don’t fit well tend to lose their shape, making the rest of your outfit feel unkempt by midday.
    — Gabrielle Porcaro, Travel + Leisure, 18 Apr. 2026
  • The gardens are well groomed but not manicured, left alone in their unkempt beauty.
    — James McAuley, ELLE Decor, 20 Apr. 2022
  • To the untrained eye, Nash Prairie looks like an unkempt pasture.
    — Julia Rosen, The Atlantic, 25 July 2022
  • Customers in masks, chomping at the bit to get their unkempt mops tamed, lingered inside.
    — Dana Hunsinger Benbow, Indianapolis Star, 11 May 2020
  • Apartments and condos will take the place of vacant or unkempt structures.
    — Monique O. Madan, miamiherald, 23 June 2017
  • Shor wears oval glasses, his belly is rotund, his hair is woolly and white, and his beard is unkempt.
    — Stephen Witt, The New Yorker, 12 Dec. 2022
  • Coffee was incapable of small talk, and pale and unkempt besides.
    — Joshua Prager, The Hive, 19 Jan. 2017
  • Djena’s hair was always unkempt.
    — Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, New Yorker, 18 May 2026
  • Davidson isn’t the perfect avatar of this unkempt, skate-forward moment in streetwear.
    — Kenzie Bryant, Vanities, 29 June 2018
  • Her thick, unkempt eyebrows furrow.
    — Margaret Heidenry, Vanity Fair, 24 Dec. 2025
  • This wasn’t the first trip city officials had made to deal with the unkempt yard on Pinkney Lane.
    — Washington Post, 29 Oct. 2021
  • Part of the hatred of leaf blowers stems from the fact that one’s lawn, like one’s life, always reverts to an unkempt state.
    — Linda Robertson, miamiherald, 25 May 2017
  • Cruz, his hair unkempt, largely sat hunched over and stared at the table as the jury’s decisions were read.
    — Terry Spencer, ajc, 13 Oct. 2022
  • Short hair doesn’t always have to be perfectly kept and this look shows slightly unkempt hair can still be glamorous.
    — Olivia O'Bryon, Forbes, 12 Sep. 2021
  • Planting a native garden does not have to mean a wild, unkempt aesthetic.
    — Ashley Chalmers, The Spruce, 6 June 2026
  • The fit is snug and flattering, so there’s nothing unkempt about it, even though the vibe is casual.
    — Gretta Monahan, Boston Herald, 28 Sep. 2025
  • Shorter men, who often end up with sweaters that dangle well below the waistline, turn to the tuck to look less unkempt.
    — Jacob Gallagher, WSJ, 16 Mar. 2022
  • Shiny, dark green fronds grow into an unkempt mound reminiscent of Medusa's hair.
    — Savanna Bous, Better Homes & Gardens, 17 Jan. 2023
  • According to Spencer, many of the plots — raised beds in wooden frames — look unkempt in the winter.
    — Andrew Simmons, San Francisco Chronicle, 27 Apr. 2018
  • The pomade uses beeswax and carnauba wax to hold brows in place for a perfectly unkempt look.
    — Shannon Barbour, The Cut, 20 Feb. 2018
  • Laubenstein appeared in court wearing a black T-shirt, an unkempt beard, and handcuffs.
    — Emily Sweeney, BostonGlobe.com, 2 May 2018
  • The patients, most of them wearing dirty hospital smocks, were shuffling around the grounds, or sprawled in an unkempt yard.
    — Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unkempt.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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