Unwarned ppl. a.¹ and adv.

[OE. unwarnod (UN-¹ 8). Cf. MDu. ongewa(e)rnet, OHG. ungiwarnôt (MHG. ungewarnet, G. ungewarnt), Sw. ovarnad.]

  1.  Not warned or forewarned.

c. 1000.  Law Northumb. Priests, in Thorpe, Laws, II. 294. ʓif preost oðerne unwarnode læte þæs, þe he wite, þæt him hearmian wille, ʓebete þæt.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 1176. He let also arere Vpe þe water stronge hous, þat hii vnwarned nere.

1338.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 13. Scho purueid þat poyson… Brittrik hir lord … Unwarned drank þerof a drauht.

1382.  Wyclif, 2 Macc. viii. 6. And he aboue cummynge to castels and cytees, vnwarnyd [L. improvisas], brente hem.

1422.  Yong, trans. Secreta Secret., 175. Hit was not y-holde proesse ne chyualry to assayle a man vnwarnyd.

1456.  Cov. Leet Bk., 295. Because no persones shuld be greued be these ordenaunces vnwarned, we ordeyn þat þes ordenaunces be radde to euery of þe seid officers.

1693.  Locke, Educ. (1699), 152. As unexperienced young Men are apt to do, if they are unwarn’d.

1715.  Ramsay, Great Eclipse, 23. When this strange darkness overshades the plains, ’Twill give an odd surprise t’ unwarned swains.

1791.  Cowper, Odyssey, I. 48. So now Ægisthus … him at his return Hath foully slain, though not unwarn’d by us, That he would surely perish.

1806.  J. Foster, Ess. (ed. 2), I. 39. Human beings, entering on life, with … unwarned carelessness of heart.

1823.  Mrs. Hemans, Vespers Palermo, III. iv. He must not die unwarn’d.

1877.  Mrs. Oliphant, Makers Flor., ix. 230. Wickedness unwarned and wrong unredressed were rampant.

  b.  Const. of.

c. 1400.  Song of Roland, 314. [They] may … haue vs euyn as they lest, And we vn-warnyd þer-of in this tid.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., III. ii. 330. Vnwarnyt of thare spyise,… [he] went to bed.

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, VIII. 182. Wallace off Beik wnwarnyt than was he.

1513.  Douglas, Æneid, XII. x. 8. The Latynis…, Quhilk of hys cumming tho onwarnyt weyr.

  † 2.  adv. Without warning or announcement.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 2682. Bi a lond weiȝe he wente riȝt, And broȝte vn-warnede on hem fiȝt.

c. 1325.  Song of Yesterday, 170, in E. E. P. (1862), 137. Sum men seiþ þat deþ is a þef, And al vnwarned wol on hym stele.

1407.  Exam. W. de Thorpe (MS. Rawl. C 208), fol. 6 b. Þei ben sodeynli & vnwarned brouȝt forþ to ben apposid of aduersaries.

c. 1450.  Mirk’s Festial, 39. Þe kyng hymselfe wold mony a tyme vnwarned come to þe mete.

  3.  Unannounced. Also with -for.

a. 1400.  Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS., 231/379. Kep vs … from temptaciun of þe fende, Of sodeyn deþ vnwarned to telle, And also from þe pyne of helle.

1641.  Bp. Hall, Serm., Wks. 1837, V. 455. One … makes sudden embargoes, and unwarned inroads into the adjoining country.

1882.  Piazzi Smith, in Nature, XXVI. 552. An interval quite long enough to allow of an unwarned for cyclone having meanwhile entered the country.

  Hence Unwarnedly adv.

15[?].  Exam. W. de Thorpe, in Foxe, A. & M. (1563), 145/2. They be sodeinly and vnwarnedly brought forth to be apposed of their aduersaries.