ppl. a. [UN-1 10, 5 d.] Not suspecting; not harboring any suspicion.
1595. Daniel, Civil Wars, IV. lxxiii. He such deepe aduise applide … To circumuent an vnsuspecting wight, Before he could discerne of their despight.
1703. Rowe, Fair Penit., II. ii. 594. My unsuspecting, valiant, honest Friend. Ibid. (1703), Ulysses, I. i. Temper … open as the Day and unsuspecting.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xii. I. 339. They … indulged their appetite for revenge and plunder, by frequent descents on the unsuspecting shores of Asia, Greece, and Africa.
1864. Pusey, Lect. Daniel, iii. 160. [His] simple unsuspecting trust … in the Romans.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xxxiii. He … ventured to make her an unsuspecting agent in his little plot.
b. Const. of, or with direct object.
1654. R. Codrington, trans. Iustine, XIII. 221. The Traytors … unsuspecting their advance … were assaulted themselves.
1725. Pope, Odyssey, IX. 522. He felt their fleeces … and let them safely go, All unsuspecting of their freight below.
1758. Goldsm., Mem. Protestant (1895), II. 108. I had the pleasure of seeing them, unsuspecting my Design, and greedily catching at the seeming Victory.
1838. Foster, Ess. (1844), I. 565. To take this step … unsuspecting of the advantage that would be taken of a needy youth.
1885. Fargus, Slings & Arrows, 114. The moment when, utterly unsuspecting of our contiguity, Eustace Grant would find himself confronted by me.
Hence Unsuspectingness.
1883. H. James, Portraits of Places, xii. 253. Her quiet-eyed unsuspectingness only makes her the more a part of his delicate entertainment.
