a. (UN-1 7.)
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), V. 207. I traversed the room, and bit my unpersuasive lips … for vexation.
1783. Blair, Lect., II. 122. That argumentative manner, bordering on the dry and unpersuasive, which is … the character of English Sermons.
1847. F. W. Newman, Hist. Hebrew Mon., ix. 328. In his own town of Anathoth,… his [sc. Jeremiah’s] extreme youth would make him unpersuasive to his neighbours.
1905. Holman-Hunt, Pre-Raphaelitism, II. 419. Actuality, without which all painting is characterless and unpersuasive.
Hence Unpersuasively adv.
1855. Pusey, Doctr. Real Presence, 347. So not unpersuasively might it be said on this passage.
1864. Grosart, Lambs all Safe (1865), 106. I have indeed written poorly and unpersuasively, if I have failed to satisfy that the death of childen, [etc.].
