Unforgiving means never letting a mistake go. It describes people, and it describes landscapes.
The human sense is plain, since an unforgiving person holds a grudge. The more interesting use is about conditions, and an unforgiving course, an unforgiving coastline or an unforgiving schedule punishes any error immediately, with no margin at all. Sport and mountaineering use it constantly in that sense. There is a design use too, since an unforgiving material shows every flaw in the workmanship.
1adjectiveunforgivingUnwilling to forgive a mistake or offence.
“He was unforgiving about the whole business for years.”
2adjectiveallowingAllowing no margin for error.
“It is an unforgiving stretch of coast in bad weather.”
From un- + forgiving.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 28 of A Man Called Ove.
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