1. Of persons: Not circumspect or cautions; imprudent, unwary.
1502. Atkynson, trans. De Imitatione, I. xxiii. 173. O thou vncircumspecte soule, of howe great perell & fere myghtest thou delyuer thy selfe of nowe.
1540. Elyot, Image Gov., 143. If there had been a senate uncircumspect,… or an Emperour a tyranne.
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 119. Yet was I not therein uncircumspect, for some of them I tooke…, others would I not take.
1669. Clarendon, Ess., Tracts (1727), 157. Such like trivial imaginations, which make us so unwary in all our actions, so uncircumspect throughout the course of our lives.
1886. A. Weir, Hist. Basis Mod. Europe (1889), 38. The evident connection between the causes of his failure and his uncircumspect philanthropic temperament.
2. Of actions, etc.: Not marked by circumspection; incautious.
1563. Foxe, A. & M., 605/2. Dalaber goes on, ‘…by this your vncircumspecte commninge vnto me, and speaking so before this yonge man, ye haue disclosed your selfe and vtterlye vndone me.’
1625. K. Long, trans. Barclay’s Argenis, IV. xi. 275. Of her owne will, with a rash and uncircumspect hastinesse, she looked upon the shoulder of the child.
1682. Bunyan, Holy War (1905), 220. Yet I cannot but (a little) chide you for your late uncircumspect action.
