English

Adjective

unstraightforward ‎(comparative more unstraightforward, superlative most unstraightforward)

1. Not straightforward; oblique, evasive, equivocal, indirect.
   • 1887, A. C. Yate, England and Russia Face to Face in Asia, William Blackwood and Sons, page 443:

     …blame attaches solely to the Liberal Government then in power, for its tortuous and unstraightforward policy.

   • 1996 August 23, Will Zachmann, "Re: Will Zachmann drops OS/2 ??", in alt.org.team-os2, Usenet:

     …I have been no kinder to IBM concerning IBM's abandonment of OS/2 (which is, in fact, what IBM is doing despite a superficial pretense at "continuing to support and enhance" the product) than I was concerning Microsoft's equally unstraightforward abandonment of OS/2 the winter of '90/'91.

   • 2012, Peter Sayer, Ambiguities and Tensions in English Language Teaching, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-89773-0, page 2:

     The answer I will suggest to both questions is “yes,” although in rather surprising and unstraightforward ways.

Derived terms

• unstraightforwardly
• unstraightforwardness