a. (UN-1 7.) Not chaste; lacking chastity; impure, lascivious: a. Of persons, etc.
1382. Wyclif, Rev. xxii. 15. Forsothe with oute forth, houndes, and venym doers,… and vnchaast men, and manquellers.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 173. Sardanapallus … was ful vnchast, and … þey þat beeþ swiþe vnchast beeþ i-cleped Sardanapally.
c. 1412. Hoccleve, Min. Poems, 216. This tale … is of a womman þat was vnchaast.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 95. He is so incontynent & vnchaste yt his mynde is blynde.
1564. trans. Martyr’s Comm. Judges, xxi. 287 b. Sempronia a certayne lasciuious & vnchast woman.
1626. Bacon, New Atl. (1650), 23. Their usuall saying is, That whosoever is unchaste cannot reverence himselfe.
1671. Milton, Samson, 321. To seek in marriage that fallacious Bride, Unclean, unchaste.
1780. Cowper, The Doves, 29. If, fickle and unchaste,… Thou couldst become unkind at last, And scorn thy present lot.
1856. Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, VII. 71. These unchaste girls are always impudent.
absol. 1390. Gower, Conf., III. 269. And thus thunchaste was chastised.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 286, ¶ 1. The Unchaste are provoked to see their Vice exposed.
1888. Hooker’s Wks., III. 789/2. The unchaste, excluded from absolution by Tertullian.
b. Of life, habits, etc.
1541. Act 33 Hen. VIII., c. 21 § 8. Withoute plaine declaracion before of her unchaste lief.
1546. Bale (title), The Actes of Englysh votaryes, comprehendynge their vnchast practyses and examples by all ages.
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. i. 231. It is … No vnchaste action or dishonoured step That hath depriu’d me of your Grace and fauour.
1663. Bp. Patrick, Parab. Pilgr., xxiii. (1687), 237. What a loss they are at sometimes … to satisfie an unchaste desire?
1711. Shaftesb., Charac., II. 109. Even the unchastest Love borrows largely from this Source.
1849. Robertson, Serm., Ser. I. ix. (1855), 145. You read of the victims of unchaste life hurried on the dark whirlwind for ever.
