a. and sb. (UN-1 7 b.)
1641. Milton, Animadv., Pref. 3. Their hopes of ascending above a lowly and unenviable pitch in this life.
1797. Mrs. A. M. Bennett, Beggar Girl (1813), II. 205. All the unenviables of her situation recurred to her mind.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. II. 143. He now daily proved that he was well entitled to this unenviable reputation.
1885. C. E. Pascoe, Lond. of To-day, 262. The church … which has earned an unenviable notoriety in connection with … Ritualistic practices.
Hence Unenviably adv.
1854. Huxley, in Life (1900), I. 47. One of that class unenviably distinguished in the war-time as a ‘donkey frigate.’
