1. Without being asked; not requested or intreated; uninvited.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 338. Þe hwule þet tu const siggen out [in shrift], seie al unasked.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 139. Gyf a knycht … had gevyn a coursour to the Provost of Paris unaskit.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 55. In gentil manner thus he soone discoursed, vnasked.
1618. J. Taylor (Water P.), Penniless Pilgr., Wks. (1630), 123/1. Master Taylor, at the Sarazen’s head, Vnask’d (vnpaid for) me both lodg’d and fed.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., III. 100. Fair Amyntas comes unasked to me, And offers love.
1710. Prior, Examiner, To Earl Godolphin, 10. Unask’d you offer, and unseen you give.
1746. Francis, trans. Hor., Sat., I. iii. 3. Sing they can never at a friend’s request, Yet chant it forth, unask’d, from morn till night.
1810. Crabbe, Borough, xviii. 56. He shows the shipping;… He makes (unask’d) their ports and business known.
1879. Meredith, Egoist, xxiv. She went to the music-rack and gave the song unasked.
† b. Left uninvited. Sc. Obs.
c. 1730. Burt, Lett. N. Scot. (1754), II. 204. I have several times been unasked to eat.
2. Not asked for; not made the subject of a request.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S. T. S.), 96. Quhat thingis … has sauf condyt be privilege unaskit at the princis.
1529. S. Fish, Supplic. Beggars (1871), 8. There was giuen theim ynough vnaxed.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 102. Yet hath he … begg’d for that which thou unask’d shalt have.
1618. J. Taylor (Water P.), Penniless Pilgr., Wks. (1630), 123/2. I thought it no good manners to refuse, But thank’d him for his kinde vnasked gift.
1658. Osborne, Jas. I., 53. The Scots, by whom nothing was unasked, and to whom nothing was denied.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 357, ¶ 10. Adam … expostulates with his Creator for having given him an unasked Existence.
1751. Warburton, Pope’s Wks., IX. 247, note. To the issue of that unasked and unsought compliment these words allude.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, x. He delivered his unasked opinion as follows.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., II. III. 426. Indeed I thought That news of ill unasked would soon be brought.
b. Similarly with for.
1714. Mandeville, Fab. Bees (1733), II. 117. The unask’d-for bounty and downright generosity of his benefactor.
1861. Lady Lyttelton, Lett., 15 Dec. The Queen … sent me an account on the 10th (unasked for …) through Lady Augusta Bruce.
1876. T. Hardy, Ethelberta, xxxvi. An unasked-for concession to their cause.
