ppl. a. Forms: (see BLEMISH v.). [UN-1 8.]
1. Free from moral blemish or stain: a. Of persons. Also absol.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 782. Vnblemyst I am wyth-outen blot.
1626. Quarles, Feast for Worms, 1594. His Spouse is chaste, vnblemisht with a spot.
1646. Crashaw, Sospetto d’Herode, xxiv. The unblemisht Lambe, blessed for ever, Should take the marke of sin, and paine of sence.
1711. Pope, Temp. Fame, 523. Unblemish’d let me live, or die unknown!
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 83. ’Twas … an wholesome rigour in the main, And taught th’ unblemish’d to preserve with care That purity, whose loss was loss of all.
1800. Misc. Tr., in Asiat. Ann. Reg., 58/2. Fines are enacted for abandoning an unblemished girl, and forgiving a blemished dansel.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, VI. I. 194. Priam’s sons in law And their unblemished consorts.
b. Of honor, name, character, etc.
1432. Paston Lett., I. 35. The said Erle … desired, and ever shal, to kepe his trouthe and worship unblemysshed.
a. 1475. Ashby, Dicta Philos., 1155. Thus ye shul … come to grete glory and noble fame Thurgh your goode liffe & vnblemyshed name.
1634. Milton, Comus, 215. O welcom pure-ey’d Faith,… And thou unblemish’t form of Chastity.
1670. Pettus, Fodinæ Reg., 45. They must be Men of upright and unblemisht Lives and Conversations.
1738. Warburton, Div. Legat., II. iv. I. 139. He should be of an unblemished and virtuous Character.
1779. Mirror, No. 33. I am now in affluent circumstances, and I have reason to think that I am so with an unblemished character.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xviii. For the unblemished faith and unfaded honour of Scotland.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xix. IV. 387. All the authority which belongs to unblemished integrity.
2. Not substantially or materially blemished or impaired.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 6802. Þe text of wangels fell in þe water…. Þe text was foun vnblemyst þare.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., vii. (1885), 125. For be this meane þe kynges estate shall alwey be kept vnblemyshed.
a. 1500. in Arnolde’s Chron. (1811), 19. So that all the forsayd citezens of London … haue alle the frauncheses of the wareyn and forest vnblemysshyd.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. xi. 62. What foule disgrace is this,… To blot your beautie that vnblemisht is?
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 618. The religious houses only being spared, and left vnblemished.
1625. Quarles, Sion’s Sonn., xvii. 3. His eyes are … Vnblemisht, vndistayned with a spot.
1883. Schaff, Encycl. Relig. Knowl., 2365. The tenth one [of cattle, etc.] being set apart, no matter whether it were bad or good, blemished or unblemished.
Hence Unblemishedness.
1656. Jeanes, Fuln. Christ, 239. The unblemishednesse required in all the Priests, that ministered in the sanctuary.
1680. H. More, Apocal. Apoc., 58. After a due search into their Pedigree, and the unblemishedness of their body.
1681–6. J. Scott, Chr. Life (1747), III. 148. The Necessity of a moral Cleanness and Unblemishedness.
