喜樂美語
  1. 1aB2/ˌʌnrɪˈlaɪəbəl/不可靠的；靠不住的

    not able to be trusted or depended on; you cannot be sure a person will do what they say, or that a machine or system will work well.

    示範例句 · Example

    We could ask our neighbours to feed the cat, but they're a little unreliable.

    逐字我們可以請我們的鄰居餵貓，但他們有一點不可靠。

    「unreliable」形容人或東西「靠不住」——人可能說了卻不做，機器或服務常常壞掉、不準時。可以想成 reliable（可靠）加上 un-，把「你可以指望」變成「你不能指望」。人用時帶「別太依賴他」的感覺；機器、公車、網路用時帶「常常出問題」的感覺。它跟 unreliable information（不可信的資訊）也常見——數字或消息本身也不穩。

    常見搭配

    • notoriously unreliable

      出了名地不可靠

      widely known to fail or be wrong often

      Long-term weather forecasts are notoriously unreliable.

    • an unreliable person / friend / neighbour

      靠不住的人／朋友／鄰居

      someone you cannot count on to do what they say

      Sam is kind, but a little unreliable about returning books on time.

    • unreliable service / bus / car / internet

      不穩定的服務／公車／車子／網路

      a machine or system that often fails or does not work well

      The village internet is slow and unreliable after storms.

    • unreliable information / source / numbers

      不可信的資訊／來源／數字

      facts or numbers you cannot trust as true or exact

      Check again — those scores may come from an unreliable source.

    • become / prove unreliable

      變得／結果證明不可靠

      start failing often, or turn out not to be dependable

      After two flat tires, the old scooter proved unreliable.

core核心畫面

Picture leaning on something and finding it will not hold your weight — sometimes it does, sometimes it does not, and you cannot tell which day is which. The word is about that inconsistency: not always bad, just not something you can count on.

可以想成：你把重量靠上去，卻發現它撐不住——有時候撐得住，有時候撐不住，而且你事先不知道是哪一天。這個字的重點在「不穩定」：不一定是壞，只是不能指望。

同家族的字

比較級 more unreliable最高級 most unreliable

原始詞典資料2 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

unreliableadj/ˌʌn.ɹɪˈlaɪ.ə.bl̩/

  • 1

    Not reliable.

    • Tell one another whether any one of you has ever heard me discuss such questions briefly or at length; and then you will realize that the other popular reports about me are equally unreliable.
    • The opposite issue emerges in the summer when students face scorching temperatures with unreliable or nonexistent air conditioning.

unreliablenoun/ˌʌn.ɹɪˈlaɪ.ə.bl̩/

  • 1

    One who or that which cannot be relied upon.

    • His employment by the leading papers in Chicago was intermittent, as he was classed among the unreliables. One could never tell when he was going to get drunk.

摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。