ppl. a. [UN-1 10.]
† 1. Not doing well; lacking merit or excellence; unworthy. Obs.
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 130. Als did unthriuand [v.r. unthrewand] Giezye, That wex unhale thoru his gilrye.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1499. Good is your speche, Bot þrete is vn-þryuande in þede þer I lende.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 4893. And we … Answarth hym … with angur & skorne, With thretyng vnthriuand.
c. 1460. Wisdom, 784, in Macro Plays, 784. Here was a meny on-thryvande.
2. Not growing vigorously or thriving; not prospering or flourishing.
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, III. xlvi. 517. After you haue thus cut it you may take the vnthriuing grafts [etc.].
1628. Quarles, Argalus & P., III. Wks. (Grosart), III. 276/2. My quill would wast Th’ unthriving stock of my bespoken time.
1673. Lady’s Call., II. ii. § 49. They will often find temtation enough here to discard their honesty, as the most unthriving trade.
1793. Residence in France (1797), I. 121. An unthriving tree of liberty, which seems to wither under the baneful influence of the bonnet rouge.
1848. Aird, Mother’s Blessing, II. ii. Filling up With stakes the gaps of the unthriving hedges.
1875. W. Alexander, Ain Folk, 59. The poor wan bairnie … looked even more shrivelled and unthriving than before.
3. Bringing no gain or profit; unprosperous.
1617. Bp. Hall, Quo Vadis? § 5. Whiles in the meane season, their vnthriuing intermission is assailed with a thousand suggestions.
a. 1656. in Raleigh’s Remains, 110. It is now more than a seasonable time to alter the course of so unthriving a husbandry.
1624. Heywood, Gunaik., IX. 442. Hee was compelled … to prostitute his owne bodye to unnaturall lusts, for bruitish and unthriving gaine.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 107. The vetches continued in an unthriving way till the first of February.
1723. Mrs. Howard, in Lett. C’tess Suffolk (1824), I. 111. Sincerity is so very unthriving, that I can never give consent that you should practise it.
Hence Unthrivingly adv., Unthrivingness.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 135. A þral þryȝt in þe þrong vnþryuandely cloþed.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 397. Þe childe was i-bore to fore his tyme, and þerfore it was so unþryvyngeliche and so evel i-schape.
1704. Dict. Rust., s.v. Enclosures, The unthrivingness of Trees.
