Unskilled

ppl. a. [UN-¹ 8.]

  1.  Not skilled or expert in something; ignorant of; untrained or unable to.

1581.  T. Howell, Deuises, H iv. Thus harte to faine vnskilde, in being whole is broke.

1612.  Drayton, Poly-olb., iv. 174. In fing’ring some unskill’d, but only us’d to sing Unto the other’s harp.

1693.  Dryden, Persius, III. 63. Down goes the Wretch at once, unskill’d to swim.

1717.  Pope, Iliad, IX. 568. Thy youth as then in sage debates unskill’d. Ibid. (1725), Odyss., IV. 1021. Thus he [spoke], unskill’d of what the Fates provide!

1791.  Cowper, Iliad, V. 77. Unskill’d to spell aright The oracles predictive of the woe.

1823.  Mrs. Hemans, Vespers of Palermo, III. v. If in this unskill’d, you stand alone Amidst our court of pleasure.

1863.  H. Cox, Instit., I. viii. 123. The members of the committee are usually unskilled in the rules of evidence.

  b.  Without const.

1693.  Prior, To C’tess of Exeter, 3. Unskill’d and young, yet something still I writ, Of Ca’ndish Beauty join’d to Cecil’s Wit.

a. 1749.  A. Hill, Epilogue, 20. The world’s wide stage … Sees some act nobly, others play unskill’d.

1818.  Shelley, Rosal. & Helen, 1066. An unskilled hand … had the marble warmed With that pathetic life.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., II. 94. Butter … melted from salt beef;… the unskilled might call it tallow.

1871.  Jowett, Plato, I. 154. None of us unskilled individuals can … become physicians.

  c.  spec. Not skilled in some handicraft; devoid of technical training.

1851.  Mayhew, London Labour, II. 323/1. With unskilled labourers it is otherwise.

1856.  Froude, Hist. Eng., I. 4. Any able-bodied unskilled labourer earns as soon as he has arrived at man’s estate.

  2.  Not involving or requiring skill; displaying lack of skill.

1833.  Ht. Martineau, Tale of Tyne, i. 8. All works of tillage have been mixed up together under the name of unskilled labour.

1849.  G. Ticknor, Span. Lit., I. 109. If their unskilled verses were preserved at all.

1869.  Froude, Short Stud. (1871), 337. Take the lowest and most unskilled labour of all, that of the peasant in the field.