[UN-1 10.]
1. Not giving way or departing from a position or principle; unyielding, inflexible, steady: a. Of feelings, dispositions, etc.
a. 1688. Cudworth, Immut. Mor. (1731), 270. Truth is the most Unbending and Uncompliable … Thing in the World.
1800. Mrs. Hervey, Mourtray Fam., IV. 115. Recollect, that Mr. Silbourne is rather of an unbending temper.
1848. Lytton, Harold, VIII. iv. His unbending hate of all that was Norman.
1861. May, Const. Hist. (1863), I. i. 82. A kind but most unbending answer was returned to Mr. Pitt.
b. Of persons.
1796. Mathias, Purs. Lit. (1798), 128. Firm, constant, and unbending, he has the principles of a man, who knows and feels what is demanded of him by his country.
1831. Scott, Ct. Rob., xxxiii. The veteran and unbending conspirator, Harpax, thus strengthened … the failing spirits of Stephanos.
1871. C. Gibbon, Lack of Gold, viii. Annie knew how doggedly unbending her father was.
2. Not bending or curving; rigid; esp. of persons, remaining erect, not stooping.
1709. Pope, Ess. Crit., 373. Swift Camilla … Flies o’er th’ unbending corn.
1726–45. Thomson, Winter, 1064. Ye noble few! who here unbending stand Beneath life’s pressure, yet bear up a while.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., xvi. The short unbending neck of the elephant is compensated by the length and flexibility of his proboscis.
1884. F. M. Crawford, Rom. Singer, I. 25. The tall old foreigner stood erect and unbending.
Hence Unbendingly adv., Unbendingness.
1847. Webster, *Unbendingly.
1894. C. N. Robinson, Brit. Fleet, 439. The usage of the time was unbendingly severe.
1824. Landor, Imag. Conv., I. 36, note. *Unbendingness, in the moral as in the vegetable world, is an indication as frequently of unsoundness as of strength.
1855. I. Taylor, Restor. Belief (1856), 59. The spread of Christianity,… [considering] its unbendingness, and the furious hostility it encountered,… is proof of its reality.
1891. Meredith, One of our Conq., xxxviii. She met them with the slender unbendingness that was her own.
