ppl. a. [UN-1 8.]
1. Not constrained or forced; not acting under constraint or compulsion.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Doctor’s T., 61. And of hir owene vertu vnconstreyned She hath ful ofte tyme syk hire feyned.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, VII. v. 25. Vnconstrenyt, nocht be law bound thairtill, Bot be our inclinatioun and fre will Just and equale.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. John, xix. 108 b. The luste to reuenge was so greate, that vnconstrayned they adiudged themselues to perpetuall bondage.
a. 1614. Donne, Βιαθανατος (1664), 201. He dyed, as the same man sayes, with the same zeale as Christ, unconstrained.
1665. Glanvill, Def. Van. Dogm., 27. A free and unconstrained will.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Sat. agst. Woman, Wks. 1730, I. 56. Unconstrain’d by want of choice they lie Wallowing in all the filth of boundless luxury.
1827. Pollok, Course T., II. 145. Making His soul an offering for sin,… By doing, suffering, dying, unconstrained.
1831. Scott, Ct. Rob., xxviii. Let me find my way to the grave, unnoticed, unconstrained.
† b. Without exertion. Obs.–1
1539. Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1541), 55 b. If he whiche oftentymes unconstrayned hath had great sieges [= evacuations], be sodeynly stopped.
2. Not done, made, given, etc., under constraint or compulsion; free, spontaneous.
1535. Act 27 Hen. VIII., c. 25. The voluntary and vnconstreined almes & charitie of the parishens.
a. 1600. Hooker, Two Serm. Jude i. § 12. What meaneth this Apostasie and vnconstrained departure? Why doe His seruants so willingly forsake him?
1632. Lithgow, Trav., I. 7. Thy voluntary wandring, and vnconstrayned exyle.
1656. Bramhall, Replic., iii. 116. These Acts were unconstrained.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Let. Dissent. Preacher, Wks. 1711, IV. 191. Thanks must be Voluntary; not only unconstrain’d, but unsolicited.
1770. Gibbon, Misc. Wks. (1814), IV. 504. The unconstrained workings of nature.
3. Free from constraint or embarrassment; natural.
1704. Moderat. Displ., iv. So Free, so Unconstrain’d in his Address.
1707. Sir W. Hope, New Method Fencing, vii. 205. In a Good Guard, the whole Body should be easy, and as much unconstrain’d as possible.
1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, II. xvii. He looked frank,—unconstrained,—something assured,—but not bordering upon assurance.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, ix. Dismissing from his countenance some part of the hypocritical affectation of humility … and saying, with a more frank and unconstrained air [etc.].
4. Not subject to restraint; unrestrained.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, IV. 278. The unconstrained freedom with which he was empowered to have more books upon the table.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xlvii. The intercourse which the prisoner could hold with any who came to visit him was unconstrained.
Hence Unconstrainedness.
1656. Earl Orrery, Parthen., III. IV. 12. He acquitted himselfe with so much grace and unconstrainednesse in the dance.
