[UN-1 8. Cf. MDu. ongesegelt, Du. ongezegeld, G. ungesiegelt.]
1. Not stamped or marked with a seal.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIV. 292. Wynneth he nauȝt with weghtes fals ne with vnseled mesures.
1492. Extr. Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 419. Conuikit … for the wrangwiss haldin of a wrang pek of less mesour, and unselit.
1550. Southampton Court Leet Rec. (1905), I. 9. We present that [they] … sell beere and wyne by vnlawful and vnsealled measures contrary to the statute.
1629. Leather, 15. The Market is full of excellent Leather;… all this in the Morning lyes vnsealed.
1660. in J. Davidson, Inverurie, etc. (1878), 361. Giv onie person have ane unseilit stoup they sall braik the same.
fig. 1680. C. Nesse, Church Hist., 447. They could never kill the souls of any of Gods sealed ones, as they did of the unsealed.
2. Not having a seal imposed or attached; not closed by means of a seal.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, I. xxxvi. (1869), 22. He þat holt his swerd naked, and þe keyes vnbownde, naked and vnseeled.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. ccccxxv. 301/2. So he toke the letters vnsealed, and retourne in to Englande agayne.
1646. Bury Wills (Camden), 192. All my bookes, papers, and parchments vnsealed.
1665. Boyle, Exp. & Obs. Conc. Cold, Pref. c 6. Judging it fit to make further Trial, with an unseal’d Weather-glass.
1726. Berkeley, in Fraser, Life, Wks. 1871, IV. 140. In case it be a bond in form, or … a promissory note unsealed.
1793. T. Twining, in Recreat. & Stud. (1882), 184. Sending the parcel unsealed that you might have read … the MS.
1848. W. H. Kelly, trans. L. Blanc’s Hist. Ten Y., II. 89. This letter … was … delivered, unsealed, to M. de Montalivet.
fig. a. 1649. Crashaw, Carmen Deo Nostro, Hymn St. Thomas, 54. When this dry soul those eyes shall see, And drink the unseal’d sourse of thee.
1820. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., IV. 115. The murmurings Of the unsealed springs.
1831. [see prec.].
transf. 1868. Rep. U. S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 278. Moisture, emanating in part from unsealed honey,… becomes condensed in the hive from external cold.
3. fig. Not formally confirmed or ratified.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, IV. ii. 30. Therefore your oathes Are words and poore conditions, but vnseal’d.
1665. J. Spencer, Vulg. Proph., 87. That very many of these Modern Prophecies have been very punctually accomplish’d, though unseal’d by any divine Sign attending the delivery of them.
1831. G. P. R. James, Phil. Augustus, II. iii. My fate is yet an unsealed one.
