Now rare. Also 4 unfest(e. [OE. unfæst (UN-1 7.), = WFris. on-, ûnfest, MDu. and Du. onvast, MHG. unvast, MDa. ufast; OHG. unfesti, -vesti (MHG. unveste, G. unfest).]
1. Insecure.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xi. § 2. For þæm þe æʓþer is unfæst, ʓe seo wyrd ʓe seo ʓesælð. Ibid. (c. 897), Gregory’s Past. C., 37.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter xvii. 40. Þou tobreddest mi gainges under me, And mi steppes noght unfest þai be. Ibid., xxvi. 4. Mi faas þat are, Þai are unfest and felle sare.
13[?]. Prose Psalter cviii. 23. (Dubl. MS.). Myn knowes beþ vniast for fastyng.
c. 1584. T. Mathew, Lett., in Life Sir C. Hatton (1847), 407. You be not the first, Sir,… that have found both friends unfast and neighbours unthankful.
1818. Todd, Unfast, not safe; not secure.
1883. R. W. Dixon, Mano, I. xiv. 45. Ah, could he but have rent shame’s unfast cloak, And seen her heart.
2. Not close or tight.
1648. Hexham, II. s.v. Leken, To Leake as unfast Vessels.
Hence Unfastness, want of firmness.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. cl. (Bodl. MS.). Þat treen beþ scharp with pikes & þornes … comeþ of vnfastenes & vnsadnes of þe tre.
1616. T. Adams, Forest of Thorns, Wks. (1629), 1055. Hee would haue it [sc. thorniness] caused by the insoliditie and vnfastnesse of the Tree.
