[UN-1 1 7. Cf. MDu. ongodelijc (Du. ongoddelijk), MHG. ungötlich (G. ungöttlich), (M)Da. ugudelig, MSw. ogudhlik (Sw. ogudlig).]
1. Of persons: Not fearing or reverencing God; irreligious, impious, wicked.
1526. Tindale, Rom. v. 6. Christ dyed for vs which were vngodly.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xx. 358. There is also a certeine Religion, and the vngodlyest man that is cannot scape from it.
a. 1613. Overbury, A Wife, etc. (1614), H 4 b. The charitable man dreames of building Churches, but starts to thinke the vngodly Courtier will pull them down again.
1653. Holcroft, Procopius, Pers. Wars, II. 48. His son succeeding him, being the ungodlyest man living.
1698. Norris, Pract. Disc., IV. 180. Which justifies a certain English Phrase … wherein we use to call a Man of a Wicked Life, an Vngodly Man.
1731. Waterland, Script. Vind., II. 100. Shimei was an ungodly wretch.
1849. G. P. R. James, Woodman, ii. The admission into her own private chamber of such very ungodly personages as Mars and Venus.
absol. 1526. Tindale, 1 Pet. iv. 18. Yf the righteous scasly be saved: where shall the vngodly and the sinner appere?
1535. Coverdale, Zeph. iii. 5. But the vngodly will not lerne to be aszshamed.
1631. Gouge, God’s Arrows, I. § 12. 17. Of the godlies exemption from the ungodlies destruction.
1738. Wesley, Ps. I. iv. But no Success th’ Ungodly find.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 24. While he was rebuking the ungodly.
1847. S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., III. 385. He did not doubt that the ungodly, as well as the pious, partook of the body and blood of Christ.
transf. 1595. Shaks., John, III. i. 109. Let not the howres of this vngodly day Weare out the daies in Peace.
b. Of the stomach: Gluttonous, greedy.
c. 1746. J. Collier (Tim Bobbin), Goose, 78. You must not Pamper your ungodly Belly.
1746. Ainsworth (ed. 2), I. An ungodly gut, venter improbus.
1828. [Carr], Craven Gloss., Ungodly, insatiable, or squeamish and nice; used of the stomach or guts.
2. Of actions, etc.: Not in accordance with the will or law of God.
1526. [see UNGODLY adv.].
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 109. They sayde it was vngodly to feyght ageynst any, not beinge prouoked.
1577. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., 15. Let hym in no wyse suffer them … to vse filthy or vngodly speache.
1617. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Pref., Wks. (1639), 6. Wherefore it were a very ungodly thing … to forbid a Surgeon to learne all, or any thing that concerneth his calling.
1671. Milton, Samson, 898. Gods unable To acquit themselves and prosecute their foes But by ungodly deeds.
1851. Longfellow, Gold. Leg., IV. Refectory. Were Peter Damian still upon earth, To be shocked by such ungodly mirth.
1864. Pusey, Lect. Daniel, i. (1876), 3. The moral law … strongly condemned forgery even when not ungodly.
3. colloq. Outrageous, dreadful.
1887. Stevenson, Merry Men, Olalla (1894), 178. I went to bed early, wearied with day-long restlessness; but the poisonous nature of the wind, and its ungodly and unintermittent uproar, would not suffer me to sleep.
