ppl. a. [UN-1 10, 5 d.]
1. Not giving heed; heedless, inattentive.
pred. 1737. Glover, Leonidas, VI. (1810), 111. Some torn deer, which … Had roam’d, unheeding, in the secret shade.
1816. Byron, Parisina, x. All silent and unheeding now, With downcast eyes and knitting brow.
1848. Mrs. Gaskell, Mary Barton, ix. He sat down by the fire in his wet things, unheeding.
attrib. 1791. Cowper, Iliad, XVI. 424. Lambs, which haply some unheeding swain Hath left to roam at large the mountains wild.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, III. x. These words had fallen on my unheeding ear.
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxvi. 355. Groups of unheeding trees and streams.
2. Const. of, or with direct object.
(a) 1795. Fate of Sedley, II. 198. I ramble over the country unheeding of the storm.
1840. T. Hook, Fitzherbert, II. vi. 153. To pull the rose unheeding of the thorn.
(b) 1798. Southey, Joan of Arc (ed. 2), I. I. 124. I sat in silence,… unheeding and unseeing all Around me.
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, I. iii. Waving his hand to the smith, and unheeding his brandished weapon.
1892. Gunter, Miss Dividends, xi. Then, unheeding his proffered aid, Erma descends from the carriage.
Hence Unheedingly adv., heedlessly.
1787. William of Normandy, II. 126. All the secrets … I unheedingly trusted him with.
1834. Lytton, Pilgr. Rhine, xix. He passed … unheedingly.
