[UN-1 12.]
† 1. Unreasonable action or intention; injustice, impropriety. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3747. He has me don oft vn-resun And no[w] me reft mi benisun.
13[?]. Metr. Hom. (Vern. MS.), in Archiv Neu. Spr., LVII. 303. Wiþ muchel wrong and vnresoun Dost þow me þis tresoun.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle, IV. ix. (Caxton), 62. It semeth me vnreson … that he that nought ne oweth shal payen for the dettour hym seluen.
c. 1500. Priests of Peblis, 141. And that ȝe think vnressoun or wrang, Wee al and sundrie sings the samin sang.
1597. Skene, De Verb. Sign., s.v. Tort, Tort, et non reason, vn-reason, wrang, and vnlaw.
1609. [see UNLAW sb. 1].
† 2. Abbot (of) Unreason, a mock personage elected as the leading character in certain popular revellings formerly in Scottish use. Obs.
1496. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 270. To Gilberte Brade,… for spilling of his hous in Striuiling be the Abbot of Vnresoun, x.li.
1555. Sc. Acts Parlt., Mary (1814), II. 500/1. It is … ordanit that in all tymes cumming na maner of persoun be chosin, Robert Hude nor Lytill Johne, Abbot of vnressoun, Quenis of Maij nor vtherwyse.
a. 1572. Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. 1846, I. 40. The same Frear maid ane uther sermoun of the Abbote Unreassone, unto whome … he compared the prelattis of that age.
[1820. Scott, Abbot, xiv. and note.]
3. Absence of reason; indisposition or inability to act or think rationally or reasonably. (Common from c. 1850.)
1837. Carlyle, Misc. (1840), I. 47. Other forms of Unreason have taken its place.
1847. Helps, Friends in C., I. vii. 115. Many a woman is brought up in unreason and self-will from these causes that he has given.
1861. M. Arnold, Pop. Educ. France, 174. A system which, to the loud blasts of unreason and intolerance, sends forth no certain counterblast.
1883. Pattison, Mem. (1885), 2. All my energy was directed … to free myself from the bondage of unreason.
b. That which is contrary to, or devoid of, reason.
1847. Helps, Friends in C., I. vii. 114. Women may talk the greatest unreason out of doors, and nobody kindly informs them that it is unreason.
1865. J. Grote, Explor. Philos., I. 210. That unreason or nonsense which it is the business of the higher part to convert into knowledge.
