1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 770. Loue is full of vnbefitting straines.
1659. Milton, Civ. Power, 48. Then was the state of rigor, childhood, bondage and works, to all which force was not unbefitting.
1836. J. Gilbert, Chr. Atonem., ix. (1852), 275. To imagine that,… were of all extravagances the most wild and unbefitting.
1864. Pusey, Lect. Daniel viii. 472. It would be unbefitting to speak of the Creator as the throne of the creature.
1891. Meredith, One of our Conq., xxx. Mrs. Blathenoy resented her unbefitting queenly style.
b. Governing a sb. (Cf. BEFIT v. 1.)
a. 1643. J. Shute, Judgem. & Mercy, ix. (1645), 198. Moses … loved not to … provoke him [Pharaoh] and use him unbefitting a Magistrate.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 759. Farr be it, that I should … think thee unbefitting holiest place.
1815. L. Hunt, Feast Poets, 70. The stanza. . has always an air of direct imitation, which is unbefitting the dignity of an original seriousness.
1880. Miss Braddon, Just as I am, vii. She never wore a garment unbefitting her years.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 115. A species of rest … not unbefitting the day.
Hence Unbefittingly adv., Unbefittingness.
1871. Macduff, Mem. Patmos, iv. 49. The form which these seven letters or addresses assume is unique; or, as it has not unbefittingly been called, ‘artistic.’
1865. Pusey, Truth Eng. Ch., 194. The longing for the vision of God, from which the unbefittingness, yet cleaving to her, still excludes her.
