unsound

Adjective complement with noun phrase

• make: The problem was in casting ductile steel into ingots without creating air pockets, which made the metal unsound.

Modifies a noun

• mind: Ironing them yourself is evidence of an unsound mind.
• basis: The environmental argument for a motorway speed limit enforcement has a terminally unsound basis in fact.
• practice: Further, it could counter unsound practices within supermarkets.
• policy: The bank refuses to do business with companies involved in the fur trade and rejects clients with poor labor practices or ecologically unsound policies.
• doctrine: Both in the pulpit and out of it they watched for unsound doctrine, and when he strayed they took him by the neck.
• strategy: In past years, WH Smith, Sainsbury's and M&S all suffered from either unsound strategy or inefficiencies, or both.

Modifying Another Word

• theologically: In November 1995 the Vatican banned her teaching, branding it theologically unsound.
• structurally: For example, the dwelling may be structurally unsound or incapable of habitation.
• ecologically: The bank refuses to do business with companies involved in the fur trade and rejects clients with poor labor practices or ecologically unsound policies.
• ethically: It also seems a bit ethically unsound to allow the dead to hold control over the living in this way.
• scientifically: Thus studies should not be set up to confirm a hypothesis which is scientifically unsound.
• fundamentally: In the case of pornography the claims of harm are not only unproven, but are likely to be fundamentally unsound.

Used with adjective complement

• become: Like Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, his methods had become unsound.
• consider: It may also be considered ecologically unsound if it results in the removal of significant wildlife habitat.
• look: Check all plant supports and replace or mend any that look unsound.