How to Use unsubtle in a Sentence

unsubtle

adjective
  • Well, that was an unsubtle mirror sneak-up shot.
    — Emma Specter, Vogue, 19 Dec. 2025
  • Jodphur boots are, in a word, unsubtle.
    — Eric Twardzik, Robb Report, 17 Oct. 2025
  • The show’s unsubtle dialogue can feel like a first draft.
    — Judy Berman, Time, 30 Oct. 2025
  • The scaffolding here is a string of biopic clichés and blips of unsubtle brand management.
    — Paul A. Thompson, Pitchfork, 27 Apr. 2026
  • Resentment came out in unsubtle ways.
    — Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 1 June 2026
  • Every so often, the dead monarchs and their court sashay out of the past to offer unsubtle commentary.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 10 Nov. 2025
  • Ryan did not name Brand during her special, but dropped several unsubtle clues about his identity.
    — Jake Kanter, Deadline, 30 Dec. 2025
  • In the wake of Good’s killing, many of us feel the fear that no one is safe, an increasingly unsubtle pressure to self-censure dissent.
    — Los Angeles Times, 14 Jan. 2026
  • There’s some unsubtle allegory in this Taiwanese movie about a flulike virus that turns people into sadistic psychopaths.
    — Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 16 Oct. 2025
  • Arirang, the seven-man group’s first studio album since 2020’s Be, is a work of both delicate and unsubtle tensions.
    — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 24 Mar. 2026
  • But people critical of the effective altruism movement have increasingly singled out the new organization in unsubtle ways.
    — Max Tani, semafor.com, 8 Dec. 2025
  • The Ugly Stepsister is unsubtle in its depiction of the (literally) crippling effects of female beauty standards.
    — Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 10 Dec. 2025
  • The script, written by Goldenberg, Bill Parker, and Kim Caramele, is an unsubtle evocation of a toxic workplace and its survivor’s rise and fall and then rise again.
    — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 19 Sep. 2025
  • Bad Bunny fans will recognize the Puerto Rican pava straw hat in the graphic, along with some unsubtle anti-ICE imagery.
    — Los Angeles Times, 8 Feb. 2026
  • When the camera pans to a framed photo of their 7-year-old son Kakeru (Rimu Kuwaki), composer Yuta Bandoh’s melancholy score provides an unsubtle hint that the boy is no longer with them.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 16 May 2026
  • No doubt, some of his criteria sounded apt even before the Department of Homeland Security turned its X account into a stream of unsubtle endorsements of white supremacy.
    — Marc Novicoff, The Atlantic, 21 Jan. 2026
  • There is a lot of agonizingly unsubtle product placement — for AMC theaters, Starry soda, even Paramount itself.
    — Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 22 Oct. 2025
  • Saltburn’s near-contemporary setting, however, didn’t really suit Fennell’s unsubtle storytelling approach; the entire ensemble seemed cartoonish, their fancy trappings chintzy and fake.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 9 Feb. 2026
  • Condé Nast abruptly fired four staffers who were among a group of more than a dozen employees who confronted the company’s head of human resources on Wednesday, an unsubtle message to its employee union that the publisher was taking a harder line in its dealings with employees.
    — Max Tani, semafor.com, 6 Nov. 2025
  • The new additions, particularly the hotheaded Mexican VP Gabriela, aren’t much more unsubtle, and the script is more successful in skewering Gen Z and workplace culture than the open goal of Gianni Infantino & Co.
    — Jon O'Brien, Vulture, 10 June 2026
  • The company's chief financial officer discussed the new data center, which Musk dubbed MACROHARDRR, in an unsubtle dig at competitor Microsoft.
    — Bracey Harris, NBC news, 26 Feb. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unsubtle.' 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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