ppl. a. Also 8–9 unin-. (UN-1 8.) a. In pred. use and const. with or by.
α. 1722. De Foe, Plague (1754), 22. Such People as were unincumbred with Trades and Business.
1800. Asiat. Ann. Reg., Hist. Ind., 13/2. His forces now consisting of light horse only, unincumbered by artillery or heavy baggage.
1877. Mrs. Oliphant, Makers Flor., iv. 117. He is unincumbered by any restrictions.
β. 1727. Thomson, Britannia, 208. Unencumber’d with the Bulk immense Of Conquest.
1822. Scott, Nigel, x. His address was gallant, free, and unencumbered either by pride or ceremony.
1866. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, iv. His small legs, unencumbered by any other drapery than his black silk stockings.
b. Without const., in predicative or attrib. use.
c. 1725. Somerville, Martial’s Epigr., xlvii. 6. An estate,… unincumber’d left, and free from debt.
1781. Cowper, Truth, 22. Heav’n’s easy, artless, unincumber’d plan.
1818. Syd. Smith, Wks. (1867), I. 235. This seems a very spirited, unincumbered way of passing through life.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xvi. 188. My first impulse was to move … with an unencumbered party.
1884. Sir E. Fry, in Law Rep., 25 Ch. Div. 581. Jeffery was the unencumbered lessee … of all the other plots.
Hence Unencumberedness.
1891. Atlantic Monthly, Feb., 182/2. To step jauntily along in airy unencumberedness.
