Also 6 vnbeleue, 7 -leeue. [UN-1 14.] To disbelieve: a. trans.
1547. Baldwin, Mor. Philos. (1550), G v b. Aristotle … beeyng asked what vauntage a man might get by lying, he answered: to be vnbeleued whan he telleth truth.
1615. Daniel, Hymen’s Triumph, II. ii. A counterfeited shew Of passion, which you may … Make him as easily to vnbeleeue, As what he neuer saw.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. viii. (1686), 24. Such as amass all relations, must erre in some, and may without offence be unbelieved in many.
1672. Eachard, Lett., 70. I must desire you to unbelieve all that you have said.
1711. Medley, No. 42. He seems to think he may … make us unbelieve what we have seen.
1813. J. Adams, Wks. (1856), X. 57. What does Priestley mean by an unbeliever, when he applies it to you? How much did he unbelieve himself?
1872. Lever, Ld. Kilgobbin, lxxix. Fellows who are realistic,… who have little to speculate on and less to unbelieve.
b. intr. or absol.
1687. Reason. Toleration, 2. Let neither Her nor Him that unbelieves depart, if pleased to stay.
a. 1718. Penn, Tracts, Wks. 1726, I. 451. Where Men believe, not because it is True, but because they are required to do so, there they will unbelieve.
1855. Browning, Bp. Blougram’s Apol., 263. And so you live to sleep as I to wake, To unbelieve as I to still believe?
