[UN-1 7. Cf. MDu. onsicht(e)lijc, -lic (Du. † onzichtelijk), invisible, ugly, MLG. unsichtlik, MHG. unsihtlîh, -lîch invisible.] Unpleasing to the eye; unhandsome, ugly.
In first quot. perhaps = ‘unable to see.’
a. 1425. Cursor M., 6706 (Trin.). Who so smiteþ out his þralles eȝe And makeþ him vnsiȝtiliȝe [Gött. vnsihti for to sie; Cott. vn-mighti for-to seie].
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke, xviii. 139. Beeyng a slouenly felowe and vnsightly in his geare.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 59. The face woulde bee euill fauoured and vnsightly, if it were hairy.
1634. Milton, Comus, 629. A small unsightly root, But of divine effect.
1673. [R. Leigh], Transp. Reh., 82. They … betray their breeding by … an unsightly bow.
1757. W. Wilkie, Epigoniad, VI. 162. Now the place Unsightly shrubs o’erspread.
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 588. There … it compresses hard The … most unsightly bones.
1855. Prescott, Philip II., I. iii. I. 34. The unsightly trophies of the heads and limbs of numerous victims.
1892. Stevenson, Across the Plains, vi. You can never have dwelt in a country more unsightly than that part of Caithness.
b. Applied to immaterial things.
1605. Shaks., Lear, II. iv. 159. Good Sir, no more: these are vnsightly trickes.
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 76. Truth,… whose first appearance to our eyes … is more unsightly and unplausible than many errors.
1787. Cowper, Poet’s N. Year’s Gift, 8. To wish thee fairer is no need,… or more freed From temper-flaws unsightly.
1810. Wordsw., Ess. Epitaphs, ¶ 6. The unsightly manner in which our monuments are crowded together.
