ppl. a. [UN-1 10.]
1. Not affording promise of excellence or success.
1663. J. Spencer, Prodigies, 81. God often accomplisheth his biggest ends by means unpromiseing.
1721. Lond. Gaz., No. 5999/1. The Vintage Season,… though very backward and unpromising…, has … begun.
1786. trans. Beckford’s Vathek, 187. The Caliph, to whom these complaints were but unpromising auguries.
1827. Scott, Surg. Dau., i. So you will often find…, under an unpromising and blunt exterior, professional skill and enthusiasm.
1871. Freeman, Norm. Conq., IV. xix. 418. Hermann … began vigorously to build a church in the unpromising spot.
† 2. Unprepossessing. Obs.
1632. Massinger & Field, Fatal Dowry, IV. i. Liladam. What d’ee take me for? Pontalier. A long thing with a most vnpromising face.
1669. Clarendon, Ess., Tracts (1727), 101. The beauty of the mind doth frequently reconcile … all men to the most unpromising countenances.
Hence Unpromisingness.
1655. Earl Orrery, Parthen., I. II. 135. I doe now in some sort rejoyce at the unpromisingnesse of my Condition.
1727. Bailey (vol. II.), Inauspiciousness, unpromisingness.
