1. Of a loose or soft consistency; incompact.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., V. iii. 6. The Churchyard … Being loose, vnfirme with digging vp of Graues.
1625. K. Long, trans. Barclay’s Argenis, II. ii. 71. Further onward the water very deepe, and the ground unfirm.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 95. What is the reason that most Veal is so unfirm and like a Jelly?
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., II. 117 b. When the banks of a River are unfirm, its channel will be stopt up with shelves.
1866. J. B. Rose, trans. Ovid’s Met., 1. Unfirm the earth, unbuoyant was the wave.
† 2. Unsteady, flighty. Obs.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., II. iv. 34. Our fancies are more giddie and vnfirme … Then womens are.
† 3. Weak; wanting in strength or power; feeble, infirm, invalid. Obs.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, III. ix. 345. A subiect of a more feeble and vnfirme nature than the graft it selfe.
1660. Jer. Taylor, Ductor, III. v. rule viii. § 8. For without it, it [sc. marriage] is not only inauspicious and unlucky, but illegal, unfirm and insufficient.
4. Not firmly placed or planted; insecure; unstable, unsteady; liable to slip or fall.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, X. 397. Now take the time, while staggering yet they stand With feet unfirm.
1761. Earl Pembroke, Milit. Equitation (1778), 58. Depend upon it those people are not only ignorant and unfeeling, but also very unfirm in their seat.
1771. Mrs. Griffith, Hist. Lady Barton, III. 20. His supplicating eye … may change my unfirm purpose.
1809. Susan, I. 176. Our best resolutions are, however, unfirm.
