ppl. a. [UN-1 10, 5 d.] Not fitting or suitable; unbecoming, improper.
Apparent earlier examples, when verifiable, have proved to be errors for unsitting. Cf. the note to FITTING ppl. a.
1590. Greene, Orl. Fur., I. i. 220. Least little brooking these vnfitting braues, My cholar ouer-slip the law of Armes.
1631. Weever, Anc. Funeral Mon., 318. These Canons did not continue long at Otteham, the scituation of the place being vnfitting.
1656. Earl Monm., trans. Boccalini’s Advts. fr. Parnass., II. lxviii. (1674), 221. A thing which … is altogether unfitting to be named.
1687. in Magd. Coll. & Jas. II. (O.H.S.), 103. He was unfitting by reason of his Immorality.
1771. Burke, Prosecut. Libels, Wks. 1842, II. 493. This is an unfitting, it is a dangerous, state of things.
1853. Abp. Thomson, Laws Th. (ed. 3), Pref. p. v. Some account of the exact position which this work pretends to occupy … may not be an unfitting introduction to its pages.
b. Const. for, or with direct object.
1591. 1st Pt. Troub. Raigne K. John (1611), B j b. These thoughts are farre vnfitting Fauconbridge.
a. 1593. Marlowe, Ovid’s Elegies, III. i. 40. Small doores vnfitting for large houses are.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, I. xxxix. 125. Qualities mis-seeming his place, and unfitting his calling.
1660. R. Coke, Power & Subj., 71. Lest … the seamen should be forgetful, and unfitting for naval warfare.
1849. Rock, Ch. of Fathers, I. v. (1903), I. 293. What so unfitting the solemnity of soul … at a burial service?
Hence Unfittingness.
1628. in Blomefield, Topogr. Hist. Norfold (1810), XI. 303. The dismission of the said Neve, and his unfittingness for that place of alderman.
1656. J. Balleston, Lett. to Haynes, 1 Sept., in Thurloe St. Papers (1742), V. 370. I feared his unfittingness for that service, I fearing his judgement would not suit with the government.
1861. Macm. Mag., June, 134. Colour or form which represents an unfittingness would be likely to become itself an unfittingness.
