1557. Act 4 & 5 Phil. & Mary, c. 3 § 1. The same Disability and Unaptness notwithstanding, the same unable and unmeet Persons … have been also released.
1595. Daniel, Civ. Wars, IV. xviii. And languishing luxuriousnes had spred Feeble vnaptnes ouer all the land.
1605. Verstegan, Dec. Intell., ix. 291. The trees grow but low … by reason of the vnaptnesse of the soyle.
1652. W. Hartley, Inf. Bapt., 12. The prohibition hath peculiar relation to the unaptness of the sacrificers.
1676. Phil. Trans., II. 739. That seminal root … hindred by the unaptness of the place.
1710. Norris, Chr. Prud., ii. 98. He often fails as to his Means, as well as to his End, I don’t mean as to their unaptness.
b. Const. for, to (with sb. or inf.).
1548. Elyot, Prosedanium, a disease which happeneth to … beastes, whiche is vnaptenesse to generacion through to muche labour.
1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 165. M. Blackwels simplicitie and vnaptnesse to gouerne.
1654. Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 55. The naturall unaptness hee has for that exercise.
1670. Clarendon, Contempl. Ps., Tracts (1727), 729. An unaptness to be confident of what they see and feel.
a. 1688. W. Clagett, 17 Serm. (1699), 216. There will be laziness and slothfulness, and unaptness for instruction.
1860. Rawlinson, Herodotus, IX. lxx. IV. 442, note. A general unaptness for the mechanical arts?
