unapt

un- +‎ apt

unapt (comparative more unapt, superlative most unapt)

1. (obsolete except in negative phrases) Not apt, inappropriate, unsuited.
   • 1571, Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. Contayned in II Bookes. […], imprinted at London, […]: By Thomas Marshe, OCLC 932903701; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: Printed for R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], and J[ohn] Newbery, […], 1761, OCLC 642424485, book 1, page 110:

     [N]eyther the love of theyr countrye, the feare of theyr enemyes, the avoydinge of punishment, nor the receyvinge of any profite that might come by it, could make them to be good archers: which be unapte and unfitte thereunto by Gods providence and nature.

   • 1866, George Eliot, Felix Holt, the Radical, Chapter 16,

     “ […] And you have been able to explain the difference between Liberal and Liberal, which, as you and I know, is something like the difference between fish and fish.”

     “Your comparison is not unapt, sir,” said Mr. Lyon, still holding his spectacles in his hand […]

   • 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Pan’s Pipes” in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, 2nd edition, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1888, p. 266,

     Some leap to the strains with unapt foot, and make a halting figure in the universal dance.

   • 1988, Joe Brown, “MCMIZ,” The Washington Post, 3 July, 1988,

     Maybe it’s unfair to link the epic (and epically expensive) “Les Misérables” with fast food. But it’s not an entirely unapt allusion, either.

2. (obsolete) Unaccustomed.
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act V, Scene 3,

     I am a soldier and unapt to weep,

     Or to exclaim on fortune’s fickleness.

   • 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, Volume 1, Chapter 16,

     The glance of fear, rather than surprise, with which she had watched the motion of the tapestry over the concealed door, implied an apprehension of danger which I could not but suppose well grounded; for Diana Vernon was little subject to the nervous emotions of her sex, and totally unapt to fear without actual and rational cause.

• punta, tupan, untap