a. (UN-1 7.)
Frequently used with preceding negative.
1585. Bullokar, Æsopz Fablz, 155. Go-away henc’ with a mischef, with that thy vn-deliht-ful howsband.
1599. Daniel, Lett. Octavia, xli. Wretched Mankind, wherfore hath nature made The lawfull vndelightfull?
1616. Breton, Good & Bad, Wks. (Grosart), II. 5/2. Hee is … an vndelightfull friend, and a tormentor of himselfe.
1662. J. Davies, tr. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 274. The Dancing of the Women … was not undelightfull.
1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor., III. § 22. In such an Age Delights will be undelightful and Pleasures grow stale unto him.
1742. Richardson, Pamela, IV. 221. I am now … quitting this undelightful Town, as it has been, and is, to me.
1775. S. J. Pratt, Liberal Opin., xcviii. (1783), III. 215. I never felt such feverish, yet not undelightful attacks before.
c. 1819. Shelley, Ess. & Lett. (1887), 305. Tacitus, or Livius,… are … undelightful and uninstructive in translation.
1876. Mrs. Oliphant, Curate in Charge, viii. The odour of this very undelightful feature in the scene.
Hence Undelightfully adv.; -fulness.
1653. Cloria & Narcissus, I. (1665), 79. They soon retired, with the undelightfulness of the prospect, into their own Lodgings.
1783. Johnson, Lett. to Mrs. Thrale, 13 Aug. Ovid says that the sun is undelightfully uniform.
1893. Swinburne, Stud. Prose & Poetry (1894), 32. In this … his real … kinship to his beloved Dr. Johnson … was not undelightfully manifest.
