Many quots. for unwieldly in reprints from 1681 onwards have, on verification in first edd, or the MSS., proved to be misprints of UNWIELDY a., as in quots. 1681–1730. The prevalence of the misprint may be the chief source of the form.]
† 1. Impotent; weak; = UNWIELDY a. 1. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 23642 (Edinb.). Þir sal haf weldnes of wale, Þa sal unweldli be wit bale.
2. = UNWIELDY a. 2–4. Also transf.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VII. (1516), 153/2. He was vnweldly by reason of ouer ladynge of Flesshe, and myght not well trauayll. Ibid., 161 b/2. [They] made them a Mamet of a Fatte and vnwyldely as.
[1681. Sanderson’s Serm., 95. As Saul’s armour did [sit] upon Davids [back]; unweildly, and sagging about his shoulders.
1730. Bailey, Inhabile,… unmeet, unfit, unwieldly, not nimble.]
1763. Churchill, Ghost, I. 261. Horrid, unweildly, without Form,… in the rear, That Post of Honour, should appear Pomposo.
1858. Faber, Foot of Cross (1872), ii. 97. Depths of significance kept opening out in it, like the interlacings and unfoldings of an unwieldly thunder-cloud.
1881. Athenæum, 19 March, 393/3. Unwieldly though the German language is in conversation and for every-day purposes.
1888. Murie, in Kingsley, Riverside Nat. Hist., IV. 404. Such a great, unwieldly, horned bird as the rhinoceros hornbill.
