ppl. a. [OE. unboren (UN-1 8 b), = OFris. un-, oen-, onbern (WFris. on-, ûnberne), MDu. and Du. ongeboren, OHG. ungi-, ungaporan (MHG. ungeborn, G. -boren), ON. and Icel. ú-, óborinn (MSw. oborin, -burin, Norw. uboren, Da. ubaaren).]
1. Not yet born; still to be born. (Freq. with preceding yet.) Also in fig. context.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., xlviii. 367. Mid ðy ðe hie ofsniðen mid ðy seaxe hefiʓlices ʓedwolan ða unborenan bearn, ðe … beoð mid wordum ʓeeacnode on ʓeleaffullra mode.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Lives Saints, xxiii. 429. Ure hælend se þe unborenum cildum lif sylð on heora modra innoðe.
c. 1200. Ormin, 17327. Forr þatt Nicodem wass ȝet Unnborenn i þatt time Off Haliȝ Gast.
c. 1375. Cursor M., 12232 (Fair.). I wende my make ware vnborne [Cott. noght born].
c. 1386. Chaucer, Melib., ¶ 2231. Ther is ful many a child vnborn of his mooder that shal sterue yong by cause of that ilke werre.
c. 1465. Chevy Chase, 9. The chylde may rue that ys vn-born, it wos the mor pitte.
1535. Coverdale, Eccl. iv. 2. Wherfore I judged … him that is yet vnborne to be better at ease then they both.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 118 b. Young chyldren, as well borne as unborne.
1624. Eliz. Jocelin (title), The Mothers Legacie, To her vnborne Childe.
1695. Prior, Ode after Queen’s Death, iii. Ages to come, and Men unborn Shall bless her Name.
1717. Pope, Iliad, X. 61. Yet such his acts, as Greeks unborn shall tell.
1779. Warner, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1844), IV. 294. They had just discovered, by what means I know no more than the child unborn, that [etc.].
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), VI. 190. The devise would have been void, being to an unborn person for life.
1840. Thirlwall, Greece, VII. lvi. 169. The throne was to be shared between an idiot and an infant yet unborn.
1887. Spectator, 22 Oct., 1406. The total abolition of settlements upon unborn lives.
b. transf. or fig. Of time, etc.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., V. i. 21. A Portent Of broached Mischeefe, to the vnborne Times.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 220. Nor staid [He], but … in Paternal Glorie rode Farr into Chaos, and the World unborn.
1712. Spect., No. 316, ¶ 5. The present Time alone is ours, the future is yet unborn.
1757. Gray, Bard, 108. Ye unborn Ages, crowd not on my soul!
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., i. (1782), I. 26. Venice was yet unborn; but the territories of that state … were inhabited by the Venetians.
1822. Shelley, Unfinished Drama, 203. A nook of unblown violets And lilies-of-the-valley yet unborn. Ibid., To Jane, Invit., 7. The brightest hour of unborn Spring.
1884. Chr. Treasury, Feb., 92/2. It is not a function of human intellect to read the secrets of unborn ages.
2. Not born; deprived of birth. Also fig.
a. 1275. Prov. Ælfred, 447, in O. E. Misc., 129. For betere is child vnboren þenne vnbeten.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 15372. To mare blis it had him ben Vnborn if þat he ware.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Shipman’s T., 1372. Yet were me leuere that I were vnborn Than me were doon a sclaundre or vileynye.
14[?]. Lat. & Eng. Prov. (MS. Douce 52), fol. 27. Better is a chylde vnborne þen vnlerned.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 87. Yf God had don vengeans, anon the world had ben endyd mony a day agoo, and so mony had be vnborne, þat now ben holy sayntys yn Heuen.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 20. Better vnborne than vntought, I haue heard saie.
1595. Daniel, Civ. Wars, II. xcvii. This mighty burthen wherewithall they goe Dies vndeliuered, perishes vnborne.
1618. Bp. Hall, Contempl. N. T., I. i. Many a father repents him of his fruitfulnesse, and hath such sons as he wishes unborne.
c. 1645. Heywood & Rowley, Fortune by Land & Sea, III. These mischiefs make me wish my self unborn.
a. 1661. [see UNBRED ppl. a. 2].
transf. 1390. Gower, Conf., II. 109. Withdrawgh the Banere of thin Armes, And let thi lyhtes ben unborn.
3. Existing without having been born.
1821. Shelley, Hellas, 769. Look on that which cannot change—the One, The unborn and the undying.
