ppl. a. [UN-1 8.]
1. Not assured or safe; insecure.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 76. Riche with wysshis, pore of possessioune; Stable unassured, assured eke unstable.
1596. Spenser, Hymn of Love, 263. The doubts, the daungers, the delayes,… The fayned friends, the unassured foes.
1611. Cotgr., Desassurer, to disassure;… to make vnsetled, vnassured.
1647. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., I. xlv. 117. In the middest of his strong and conquering army he held himselfe unassured.
1896. Daily News, 29 Oct., 6/5. The confusion … superinduced by unassured peace.
2. Not certain or sure (of something).
a. 1529. Skelton, Replyc., 93. Your selfe thus ye discured As clerkes vnassured, With ignorance obscured.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 504. The sentence definitive is suspended or else it is otherwise ghessed at by humane and vnassured suspition.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 194. To invent or assign a cause, when we remain unsatisfied or unassured of the effect.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxvii. 156. When men are by any accident unassured they have slept, [dreams] seem to be reall Visions.
1736. Thomson, Liberty, V. 718. As thick to view these varied Wonders rose, Shook all my soul with transport, unassur’d, The Vision broke.
1776. M. Morgann, Ess. Dram. Char. Falstaff (1777), 12. Their ill-gotten … gold feels loose in their unassured grasp.
3. Not self-possessed or confident; not sure of oneself or of one’s safety.
1627. Lisander & Cal., V. 81. Asked him with a troubled countenance and an vnassured voyce, in what part of France he was borne, how he was taken, and whither he was going when this misfortune happened?
1697. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., II. (1709), 153. He that is Embarrassed in his Liberty, is apt to be unassur’d in his Actions.
1713. Guard., No. 32, ¶ 8. He moved towards her with an easie but unassured air.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), IV. 73. [They] stood yet awhile, pale, astonished, and unassured.
1821–2. Wordsw., Eccl. Sonn., III. xxxvii. 8. Had we, like them, endured Sore stress of apprehension,… From month to month trembling and unassured.
1825. Scott, Betrothed, xxvii. Lady Eveline approached his bedside with unassured steps, fearing she knew not what.
4. Not insured against loss or damage.
1828–32. Webster, s.v.
Hence Unassuredly adv., Unassuredness.
1648. Hexham, II. Ongewisselick, Vncertainly, or Vnassuredly.
1660. Ingelo, Bentiv. & Ur., I. (1682), 130. Incredulous Philosophers, of whose vitious lives I cannot but think their unassuredness in this matter to have been a great cause.
