1. Having no feeling or sensation, insensible; fig. not sensitive to impressions, etc.
c. 1000. Sax. Lecchd., II. 264. Yfele swilas unfelende.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 24426. Quen i sagh þus all thinges … Vnfeland for þair lauerd murn, Moght i me noght for-ber.
c. 1430. Life St. Kath. (1884), 31. For þay wot not hem self þat þay are [offended] whyl þay are bot vnfelyng matere.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., I. i. 103. Vnfeeling fools can with such wrongs dispence. Ibid. (1593), 2 Hen. VI., II. ii. 145. Fain would I go to chafe his palie lips,… And with my fingers feele his hand, vnfeeling.
1619. J. Taylor (Water P.), Kicksey Winsey, Wks. (1630), 42/1. They must not take me for a Stupid asse, That I (vnfeeling) will let these things passe.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), IV. 127. [He] pressed his lips to the pale and unfeeling lips.
1780. Cowper, Progr. Error, 528. So one … Woo’d an unfeeling statue for his wife.
1846. Trench, Mirac., iv. 36. When he blesses, it is men; but when he smites, it is an unfeeling tree.
1876. Blackie, Songs Relig. & Life, 223. All my weeping can recall her never, Back from the cold unfeeling sod!
b. Const. of, to, or with direct object.
1744. Eliza Heywood, Female Spect., No. 3 (1748), I. 113. It is sure a pleasure which no words can paint!—No heart unfeeling it conceive!
1748. Thomson, Cast. Indol., II. liv. But should to fame your hearts unfeeling be,… Then hear [etc.].
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), II. 119. They appeared so cheerful and unfeeling of their own wretchedness.
2. Devoid of kindly or tender feelings; uncompassionate, unsympathetic.
1595. Shaks., Merch. V., IV. i. 63. This is no answer thou vnfeeling man, To excuse the currant of thy cruelty.
1598–9. B. Jonson, Case is Altered, V. iii. O heauen! can it be? That men should liue with such vnfeeling soules, Without or touch or conscience of religion?
1734. Pope, Ess. Man, IV. 319. The broadest mirth unfeeling Folly wears, Less pleasing far than Virtue’s very tears.
1777. Mrs. Barbauld, Poems (ed. 5), 87.
| The proud unfeeling world their lot shall scorn | |
| Who ’midst inglorious shades can poorly dwell. |
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F. (1787), III. xxx. 167, note. The bloody actor is less detestable than the cool unfeeling historian.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xviii. I was neither a false lover nor an unfeeling son.
1883. Froude, in Mrs. Carlyle’s Lett., III. 204. John Carlyle … had been rough and unfeeling.
absol. 1742. Gray, Prospect Eton Coll., 94. The tender [groan] for another’s pain; Th’ unfeeling for his own.
