a. and sb. Sc. and north. Obs. Also 6 vnsall, -sale, -sell, 7 ouncel. [var. of UNSELE a.]
1. adj. Unlucky, wretched; wicked.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xv. 40. Gais furth, I send ȝou, I ȝou tel, as lammys amang wolfis vnsel.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xiv. 79. Of Sathanis senȝie syne sic ane vnsall menȝie … was nevir hard nor sene.
a. 1583. Montgomerie, Flyting, 87 (Tullib. MS.). Arpit angrie Ettercoip, and auld vnsell aip.
a. 1614. J. Melvill, Diary (Wodrow Soc.), 49. I haiff dreamed an unsell dream.
b. As adv. Wickedly, vilely.
a. 1583. Polwart, Flyting w. Montgomerie, 622 (Tullib. MS.). He was ane fals schismatik, notorlie namit; Baith hurdome, & homeceid, vnsell he vsit.
2. sb. A vile or worthless person; a wretch.
Kittie unsel (Sc.): see KITTY1 1.
155[?]. Lyndesay, Play, 2038 (Bann. MS.). Quhat sayis thow, cairle, art thow Gud Counsale? Swyth, pass the hence, vnhappy vnsale.
a. 1583. Montgomerie, Flyting, 282. There ane elf on ane ape ane vnsell begat.
1677. Nicolson, in Trans. Royal Soc. Lit., IX. 321. Unsell, wretched fellow.
1691. Ray, N. Co. Words (ed. 2), 150. Unsel, Nomen … opprobriosum.
1825. Jamieson, s.v., In Dumfries-shire, Scoury unsell is a contemptuous designation applied to a child, by one who is in bad humour.
1894. Northumb. Gloss., 757.
b. The Evil One. rare.
c. 1669. Garbutt, One Come from Dead (1675), 27. He is right the Devils Child, the Ouncels Elfe. Ibid., 26.
