uncouth Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite lacking refinement or cultivation or taste
    rough-cut; vulgar; coarse; common.
    • he had coarse manners but a first-rate mind
    • behavior that branded him as common
    • an untutored and uncouth human being
    • an uncouth soldier--a real tough guy
    • appealing to the vulgar taste for violence
    • the vulgar display of the newly rich

WordNet

Un*couth" adjective
Etymology
OE. uncouth, AS. unc unknown, strange: un- (see Un- not) + c known, p. p. of cunnan to know. See Can to be able, and cf. Unco, Unked.
Definitions
  1. Unknown. Obs. "This uncouth errand." Milton.
    To leave the good that I had in hand, In hope of better that was uncouth. Spenser.
  2. Uncommon; rare; exquisite; elegant. Obs.
    Harness . . . so uncouth and so rish. Chaucer.
  3. Unfamiliar; strange; hence, mysterious; dreadful; also, odd; awkward; boorish; as, uncouth manners. "Uncouth in guise and gesture." I. Taylor.
    I am surprised with an uncouth fear. Shak.
    Thus sang the uncouth swain. Milton.
    Syn. -- See Awkward. -- Un*couth"ly, adv. -- Un*couth"ness, n.

Webster 1913