ppl. a. [UN-1 8.]
1. Not encumbered, hampered, or impeded. (In lit or fig. uses.)
1697. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., III. (1707), 176, Diss. Drunkenness. Consider the Advantage of Temperance: How clean and unembarass’d it keeps the Sences, and makes them seize the Object with more Keenness and Satisfaction.
1717. Berkeley, in Fraser, Life (1871), 551. [The church of] St. Spiritus [is] very neat and unembarrassed [with ornament].
1796. Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813), 201. The movements of the second line to conform to that of the first are free and unembarrassed.
1836. J. Gilbert, Chr. Atonem., ix. (1852), 296. Not a single doctrine could remain unembarrassed with doubt.
1884. Manch. Exam., 6 Oct., 5/2. To be left to pursue an unembarrassed course in [governing] Egypt.
2. Not confused or constrained; free, at ease.
1746. P. Yorke, in G. Harris, Life Ld. Hardwicke (1847), II. 235. The second [ballad] is entitled, ‘The Unembarrassed Countenance,’ alluding to an expression of his in the House.
1762. Foote, Liar, I. i. He is as unimbarrassed, easy, and fluent … as if he really believed what he said.
1786. Beckford’s Vathek (1868), 73. His gait was unembarrassed and noble.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, xxix. The young man was perfectly easy and unembarrassed.
1897. Harper’s Mag., April, 726. Declining the unembarrassed entreaties…, I despatched my inquiries and fled.
