Adjective

(en adjective)

Having or displaying no guile, cunning, or deceit.

{{quote-Fanny Hill, part=5 , And why should I here suppress the delight I received from this amiable creature, in remarking each artless look, each motion of pure undissembled nature, betrayed by his wanton eyes}}

Free of artificiality; natural.

This pendant has artless charm.

Lacking art, knowledge, or skill; uncultured and ignorant.

Poorly made or done; crude.

Adjective

(en adjective)

Not noble; unbecoming true honor or dignity; mean; unworthy; fake or deceptive.

Not ingenuous; not frank or open; uncandid; unworthily or meanly artful.

* 1726 , , The Poems of Alexander Pope: The Odyssey of Homer. Books XIII-XXIV , edited by Maynard Mack, Methuen, 1969, volume 10, page 378:

I am not so vain as to think these Remarks free from faults, nor so disingenuous as not to confess them:

Assuming a pose of naivete to make a point or for deception.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03

, author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter , title=The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , volume=100, issue=2, page=87 , magazine= citation , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.}}