Unfurnished

ppl. a. [UN-¹ 8.]

  1.  Not furnished, in various senses; unprovided, unequipped, unprepared.

  (a)  1549.  Cheke, Hurt Sedit. (1569), F ij. Exeter … being in the middest of Rebelles, vnuittailed, vnfurnished, vnprepared, for so long a siege.

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., IV. ii. 10. Go, be gone, we shall be much vnfurnisht for this time. Ibid. (1599), Hen. V., I. ii. 148. The Scot, on his vnfurnisht Kingdome, Came pouring like the Tyde into a breach.

1601.  W. T., Ld. Remy’s Civ. Considerations, ix., heading. Ambassadours of Princes ought not to shew themselues bashfull and vnfurnished.

1638.  T. Verney, in V. Papers (Camden), 197. I need not putt downe tooles for euery tradesman, for I beleeue you will not send them unfurnished.

1734.  Waterland, Doctr. Holy Trin., vii. 396. [New servants] who … may be unfurnished for the Employ, or not well affected to his Person and Government.

1822.  Shelley, Chas. I., II. 266. We want money, and my mind misgives me That for so great an enterprise, as yet, We are unfurnished.

1860.  Froude, Hist. Eng., V. 183. As the treasury was unfurnished, the lords … raised money by every possible shift.

  (b)  1697.  Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., I. (1703), 25. What though our Minds were poor, and unfurnished at first.

1731.  Fielding, Grub St. Op., I. ii. Whatever Nature hath done for him in another way, she hath left his head unfurnish’d.

1784.  Cowper, Task, IV. 209. All the tricks That idleness has ever yet contriv’d To fill the void of an unfurnish’d brain.

1817.  Coleridge, Biogr. Lit., xvii. (1907), II. 43. An unfurnished or confused understanding.

  b.  Const. of or with.

  (a)  1541.  Act 33 Hen. VIII., c. 9 § 2. Other cities … remaine and be vnfurnished of artificers and craftes men before rehersed.

1625.  Hart, Anat. Ur., Ded. A iv. Some nations vnfurnished of frankincense, offer vp milke … to their gods.

1707.  Norris, Treat. Humility, Pref. 3. So that … he may not be unfurnished of a competent consideration of the matter in hand.

1802.  Lamb, J. Woodvil, 1. Nor am I so unfurnish’d, as you think, Of practicable schemes.

  (b)  1611.  in Essex Rev. (1906), XV. 155. The sayd place is very muche hindred and unfurnyshed with a convenient Schole howse.

1691.  T. H[ale], Acc. New Intent., 41. England being never to be supposed unfurnished with Lead, as bearing it within its own Bowels.

1791.  Cowper, Iliad, XVII. 173. Chieftain of excelling form, But all unfurnish’d with a warrior’s heart!

1833.  Chalmers, Const. Man, v. (1835), I. 211. Because he is so unfurnished with the ideas of justice.

  2.  Of houses or apartments: Not provided with furniture, spec. not furnished by the landlord or person letting; requiring to be furnished by the tenant or occupant.

1581.  Anne Askew, in Nicolas, Hatton’s Life & T. (1847), 223. This short warning and my unfurnished house, do ill agree.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., I. ii. 68. Alacke, and what shall good old Yorke there see But empty lodgings, and vnfurnish’d walles.

1680.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1553/4. A Fair House to be Lett Furnished or Unfurnished.

1769.  Phil. Trans., LIX. 181. An unfurnished room of the Hospital.

1824.  Miss L. M. Hawkins, Annaline, II. 268. [He] pays for ships and houses,… the latter he would let if he could either furnished or unfurnished.

1885.  [W. H. White], M. Rutherford’s Deliv., i. 14. M‘Kay—for that was his name—lived, as I have said, in Goodge Street, where he had unfurnished apartments.

  fig.  1663.  Butler, Hud., I. I. 162. Such [cobwebs] as take Lodgings in a Head That’s to be lett unfurnished.

  b.  Not fitted up; devoid of the usual fittings, tackle, etc.

1608.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. Schisme, 298. Chariots, unfurnisht and unharnest.

1623.  State Papers, Col., East Indies (1878), 202. They utterly refuse unfurnished ships.

  c.  Destitute of foliage; defective in flesh.

1712.  J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 151. If the Plant be crooked,… mishapen…, or very much unfurnish’d.

1893.  Kennel Gaz., Aug., 217/3. The latter [dog] is also smart but quite unfurnished, and his feet are not good.

  Hence Unfurnishedness.

1647.  Boyle, in Birch, Life (1744), 82. Trying such experiments, as the unfurnishedness of the place … will permit me.