Unbroken

ppl. a. [UN-¹ 8 b. Cf. MDu. and Du. ongebroken, MHG. and G. ungebrochen.]

  1.  Of compacts, etc.: Not broken or infringed; unviolated, inviolate.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 611 Bot for to hald it wel vnbroken, Þe forbot þat was be-twix þam spoken.

1580.  Hollyband, Inviolé, inuiolated, sound, vnbroken.

1667.  Milton, P. L., II. 691. That Traitor Angel,… Who first broke peace in Heav’n and Faith, till then Unbrok’n.

1743.  Francis, trans. Hor., Odes, I. xvii. 20. To sing frail Circe’s guilty Fire, And chaste Penelope’s unbroken Vow.

  2.  Of material things: Not broken or fractured; intact, whole.

1495.  Trevisa’s Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxx. 939. Men in olde tyme callyd a thynge y^t was hoole and vnbroken, Solidum et Totum.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., I. xviii. 21. [There are] many towers and goodly buildings ruined…, amongst which, one which was vnbroken.

1613.  Tourneur, Pr. Henry, 97. I wonder how Or he or anye other souldier now Can hold his sword unbroken.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 426. His bowels, bruised within, Betray no wound on his unbroken skin.

1707.  Mortimer, Husb. (1721), II. 357. Put into the Hogshead ten new-laid Eggs, unbroken or cracked.

1790.  J. Bruce, Source Nile, II. 460. The seal [was] examined, and declared to be the patriarch’s, and unbroken.

1864.  Mrs. Carlyle, Lett. (1883), III. 218. There is hardly a kitchen utensil left unbroken.

1889.  J. C. Jeaffreson, Q. of Naples & Nelson, I. iii. 92–3. On escaping from the blanket with unbroken bones, the Abbate withdrew from the scene of his discomfiture with keenly wounded pride.

  fig.  a. 1650.  Crashaw, Carmen, Answ. for Hope, 16. Nor will the virgin joyes we wed Come lesse unbroken to our bed.

1753.  Richardson, Grandison (1781), II. xxxvi. 341. My fortune, which is unbroken, is the same sum that he gave my Brothers.

  3.  Not crushed, humbled, or subdued; not impaired or weakened.

1513.  Douglas, Æneid, XII. i. 4. Turnus … saw thar curage faill,… Quhilk war tofor onbrokin and stowt of hart.

1549.  Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. 1 John ii. 47. A mynde that is vnbroken and vnconquered agaynst al wanton enticementes.

1609.  B. Jonson, Masque of Queenes, Wks. (1660), 960. A Heroine of a most inuincible and vnbroken fortitude.

1612.  Two Noble K., V. iv. 101. If thy heart, Thy worthie, manly heart, be yet unbroken.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, X. 1102. But, glancing thence, the yet unbroken force Took a new bent obliquely.

1796.  Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, V. 288. Her, as yet, unbroken powers of encountering adversity.

1817.  Lady Morgan, France, II. (1818), I. 261. Courage unsubdued, spirits unbroken, indignation unrestrained.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xviii. 219. The journey was an arduous one to be undertaken, even by unbroken men.

1907.  Verney Mem., II. 239. Her … cheerful spirits, unbroken by poverty and dependence.

  4.  Of horses, etc.: Not tamed or rendered tractable; untrained.

1538.  Elyot, Indomitus, wylde, vnbroken.

1542.  Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 230. To ride the vnbroken horse Bucephalus.

1593.  Nashe, Christ’s T., Wks. (Grosart), IV. 170. We are the vnbroken-Colt … which hee [sc. Our Lord] commaunded (with the Asse) to be brought vnto hym.

1705.  Stanhope, Paraphr., I. 30. A Colt unbroken on which never Man had sat.

1806–7.  J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), II. xxvii. Driving an unbroken horse.

1864.  Boyd, Ess., Commonpl. Philos., vii. 203. No man likes to think that he is being managed as Mr. Rarey might manage an unbroken colt.

1908.  Animal Managem., 252. Traders carrying unbroken horses through the tropics.

  transf.  1743.  Francis, trans. Hor., Epodes, vii. 7. Britons yet unbroken to our War, In Chains should follow our triumphal Car.

1747.  Richardson, Clarissa (1811), I. xvii. 119. You are young and unbroken.

  5.  Not interrupted or disturbed; continuous, uniform.

1561.  T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., I. 5 b. There ought to haue ben one continual vnbroken course of obedience in their whole lyfe.

a. 1578.  Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 23. Sick amitie and freindscheip … that all men supponit the samyn for to indure for ever and euer onbrokin.

1722.  Wollaston, Relig. Nat., iii. 60. Truth is the offspring of silence, unbroken meditations, and thoughts often revised and corrected.

1736.  Butler, Anal., II. vii. 260. An unbroken Genealogy of Mankind for many Ages.

1783.  Burke, Rep. Aff. India, Wks. 1842, II. 11. It required an unbroken attention,… to form a true judgment.

1825.  Waterton, Wand. S. Amer., I. (1903), 2. An unbroken range of forest covers each bank of the river.

1852.  Robertson, Serm., Ser. III. xii. (1882), 151. One unbroken series of cruelty and crime.

1887.  Bowen, Æneid, I. 495. While yet silent he stands in a long and unbroken gaze.

  b.  Const. by.

1743.  Francis, trans. Hor., Odes, I. xiii. 19. In equal rapture, and sincere delights, Unbroken by complaints or strife.

1796.  Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, III. 137. Miss Dennel grew … weary with the length of the way, unbroken by any company.

1809.  Campbell, Gert. Wyom., I. x. Many a halcyon day he lived to see Unbroken but by one misfortune dire.

1882.  De Windt, Equator, 66. The landscape being unbroken by hill or habitation of any kind.

  6.  Of ground: Not broken by ploughing or digging. Also with up.

1579–80.  North, Plutarch (1595), 26. They did take off the plougheshare, and draw the ploughe, with leauing a certain space of earthe vnbroken up.

1638.  Junius, Paint. Ancients, 245. An unbroken and untilled ground doth now and then bring forth goodly hearbs.

1646.  Earl Monm., trans. Biondi’s Civil Wars, IX. 206. The ground is for the most part unbroken up.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 75. E’er we stir the yet unbroken Ground.

1746.  Francis, trans. Horace, Epist., I. xiv. 36. You complain, that with unceasing Toil, You break, alas! the long unbroken Soil.

1855.  Delamer, Kitchen Garden (1861), 142. If you are making a new garden on unbroken ground.

  7.  Not broken in ranks; not thrown into disorder.

1721.  De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 129. The imperialists, eager in the pursuit, left him unbroken.

1781.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxx. III. 153. He … withdrew from the field of battle, with the greatest part of his cavalry entire and unbroken.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvii. IV. 93. The obscurity enabled Sarsfield, with a few squadrons which still remained unbroken, to cover the retreat.

1898.  Westm. Gaz., 24 Sept., 2/1. As cavalry are not ordinarily required to charge large masses of unbroken infantry.

  8.  Bot. Not variegated. (Cf. BREAK v. 32 c.)

1829.  Loudon, Encycl. Plants (1836), 267. Instead of saving the seed … from the finest variegated tulips, they prefer unbroken flowers or breeders.

  Hence Unbrokenly adv., Unbrokenness.

1833.  Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley, Poems, 263.

1850.  Lynch, Theoph. Trinal, xii. 232. The years *unbrokenly march on.

1866.  Liddon, Bampt. Lect., vi. (1875), 322. Like a ray of light from the parent fire with which it is unbrokenly joined.

1849.  Rock, Ch. of Fathers, I. iii. 246. The unbroken wholeness of this Altar-stone was a symbol of the *unbrokenness of the Church.

1889.  Abp. Benson, in A. C. Benson, Life (1900), II. 284. The whole crowded congregation sing in most perfect unbrokenness.