ppl. a. Also dial. onbeknown, unbeknawn, etc. [UN-1 8 b.]
1. In absolute or adverbial const. in the phrase unbeknown to, without the knowledge of.
1636. T. Goodwin, Return of Prayers, iv. 75. To sympathize with another in praying for such a thing unbeknowne one to another.
1836–7. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Seven Dials. If my ’usband had treated her with a drain … unbeknown to me, I’d tear her precious eyes out. Ibid. (1837), Pickw., xxxiv. ‘I was there,’ resumed Mrs. Cluppins, ‘unbeknown to Mrs. Bardell.’
1885. Law Times, 23 Feb., 321/2. The chalk had been opened … unbeknown to the tenant.
ellipt. 1866. Reade, G. Gaunt, xvi. I shall send you some stock from the castle, and you can cook his vegetables in good strong gravy, unbeknown.
1896. Housman, Shropshire Lad, xxi. My love rose up so early And stole out unbeknown.
2. Unknown; lying outside of one’s knowledge or acquaintance. Also absol.
1824. Monthly Mag., LVII. 408. They agreed to be both at the tourney, But unbeknown and clad in common armure.
1861. Clough, Poems, etc. (1869), I. 262. Gentlemen unbeknown to ladies give their arms to ladies aforesaid, to conduct them into dinner.
1888. Pall Mall G., 7 May, 2/2. He … is loath to prophesy as to what is possible or is not possible in that ‘land of the unbeknown.’
