[UN-1 12. Cf. Du. onwaarde, G. unwerth, Da. uværd worthlessness; also WANWORTH sb.]
† 1. Lack of merit or desert. Obs. rare.
1340. Ayenb., 35. Þe þridde manere of gavelinge is ine ham þet habbeþ onworþ to lene of hire hand. Ibid., 270. Dyad he [sc. Christ] is, þou hest hueruore: and to sterue þou best onworþ?
2. Lack or absence of worth; unworthiness.
1835. Carlyle, in Froude, Life (1884), I. 41. Do you reckon … that style (mere dictionary style) has much to do with the worth or unworth of a book?
1872. Ruskin, Fors Clav., xiv. 9. Nature and Heaven command you … to discern worth from unworth in everything.
1896. A. Austin, England’s Darling, III. i. Why hath the King Laid this great meed on my unworth?
