inclement

adj

Etymology: From Latin inclēmēns (“unmerciful, severe”), from in- (“not”) + clēmēns (“mild, placid”).

1. Stormy, of rough weather; not clement.

   “inclement weather”

   “Starless exposed, and ever-threatening storms / Of Chaos blustering round, inclement sky; / Save on that side which from the wall of Heaven, / Though distant far, some small reflection gains / Of glimmering air less vexed with tempest loud.”

2. Merciless, unrelenting.

   “He lived in the world, as the last of the Grisly Bears lived in settled Missouri. And as when Spring and Summer had departed, that wild Logan of the woods, burying himself in the hollow of a tree, lived out the winter there, sucking his own paws; so, in his inclement, howling old age, Ahab’s soul, shut up in the caved trunk of his body, there fed upon the sullen paws of its gloom!”

   “By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.”

3. Unmercifully severe in temper or action.