[UN-1 8 b + BLOWN ppl. a.2] Of flowers: Unopened; still in the bud.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xiii. 213. The little flowers, which wee see vnblowen in the morning and withered at night.
1775. T. Percival, Ess. (1776), III. 203. A purple flower, unblown, was suspended in the vessel with the lilas.
a. 1822. [see UNBORN ppl. a. 1 b].
1845. Ballard & Garrod, Mat. Med., 226. Rosa Gallica. The dried petals of the shops are the unblown flower-buds.
1850. Jrnl. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, XIX. 18, note. The formation shaped like the unblown water-lily.
fig. 1594. Shaks., Rich. III. (1597) IV. iv. 10. Ah my young princes, ah my tender babes! My vnblowne flowers.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Hum. Lieut. I. iv. How yet unripe we were, unblown, unharden’d. Ibid. (a. 1625), Love’s Pilgrimage, III. ii. I hold my beauty … As right and rich as hers,… My youth as much unblown.
1656. Duchess Newcastle, Nature’s Pictures (1671), II. 306.
| And Language utterly unknown, | |
| The Trumpet loud of Fame unblown: | |
| No Ladder set unto her Throne, | |
| The Hill untrod she sits upon. |
1784. Cowper, Tiroc., 446. Boys are at best but pretty buds unblown.
1821. Shelley, Epipsych., 265. As hair grown gray O’er a young brow, they hid its unblown prime With ruins of unseasonable time.
1893. B. Carman, Lyrics, Why, i.
| For a name unknown, | |
| Whose fame unblown | |
| Sleeps in the hills | |
| For ever and aye. |
