a. and sb. [UN-1 8.]

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  † 1.  Untouched, unaffected. Obs.–1

2

1613.  Sir A. Sherley, Trav. Persia, 136. Any of those bring extrinsicke danger, or intrinsicke errours, from both which you must liue free and vnattained.

3

  2.  Not attained or reached.

4

1671.  Clarendon, Dial., Tracts (1727), 326. The art of Logick … is rarely unattained there by any who spend their time there with any application.

5

1774.  Goldsmith, Nat. Hist. (1776), II. 92. When the mind reflects with regret upon some good unattained or lost.

6

1794.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxvi. Unless the crime … was instigated merely by resentment,… its object must be unattained till the niece was also dead.

7

1868.  Morris, Earthly Par. (1870), I. II. 585. Days once bright, With foolish hopes of unattained delight.

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  b.  sb. With the: That which is not attained.

9

1854.  Longf., Epimetheus, xii. Thou makest each mystery clearer, And the unattained seems nearer.

10

1870.  Whittier, My Triumph, vii. I better know than all How little I have gained, How vast the unattained.

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