1. † a. Impartial, unbiassed, fair. Obs.
Very common from c. 1590 to c. 1660.
1579. W. Wilkinson, Confut. Fam. Love, B ij b. Then must the Judge sit vnparciall in judgement place.
1593. Sidney’s Arcadia, V. (1922), 201. I wayed the matter … with most unpartiall and farthest reach of reason.
1637. Heywood, Royall King, 29. Rendring withall a full satisfactory reason to any unpartiall reader, why they are there.
a. 1662. Sanderson, in Walton, Life (1796), 496. Upon the clear evidence of truth and reason, after a serious and unpartial examination of the grounds.
b. Free from inclination or fondness.
1844. Thackeray, B. Lyndon, xv. The widow was not unpartial to me.
2. Unrestricted, ample. rare–1.
1787. Bentham, Def. Usury, xiii. 137. On the most unpartial and extensive signification.
Hence Unpartialness.
a. 1639. W. Whateley, Prototypes, II. xxxii. (1640), 127. O ignorant … creatures that we be, let us beg more wisdome and unpartialnesse to our selves at Gods hand.
1661. Feltham, Resolves, II. xxvii. 237. Even in the unpartialness of War.
