untoward

adj

Etymology: From un- + toward (“to + -ward”).

1. Unfavourable, adverse, or disadvantageous.

   “But as soon as her son espied her, bowl in hand, he thought that haply something untoward had befallen her, but he would not ask of aught until such time as she had set down the bowl, when she acquainted him with that which had occurred[…]”

   “Honest men for the most part, but men with whom the world had dealt hardly; the failures of all countries, men sobered by toil and saddened by exile, who had been driven to fight for the dominion of an untoward soil, to sow where others should gather, the advance-guard of a mighty civilization to be.”

2. Unruly, troublesome; not easily guided.
3. Unseemly, improper.

   “She could hardly have made a more untoward choice.”

   “The managing director was very depressed at the news, but realized that trying to prove anything untoward had taken place would be very difficult.”