unlikely

4 definitions • 4 examples

not probable or likely to happen:

[ + (that) ] It's pretty unlikely (that) they'll turn up now - it's nearly ten o'clock.

not the same as you would usually expect:

He's an unlikely-looking doctor (= he is not what I expect a doctor to look like).

probably not true:

When I asked what he was doing there, he came up with some unlikely explanation.

not expected to happen; not likely:

[ + (that) clause ] It’s unlikely (that) we will ever learn what happened.