[OE. unclǽnlic: see UN-1 7 and CLEANLY a. Cf. MDu. oncleinlijc, oncleenlijc foul, dirty.]
1. Morally or spiritually impure.
c. 950. Rit. Eccl. Dunelm. (Surtees), 110. Contactus inlicitorium fugat, cunnvnga þa vnclænlico ʓifliæ.
1340. Ayenb., 42. Ich clepie onclenlich: huanne þe seruises byeþ y-do uor onclenliche cause.
1526. Tindale, 2 Pet. ii. 7. Lot vexed with the unclenly conversacion off the wicked.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Acts xii. 45 b. And princes on the other parte flatter the people, exhibitinge vnto them shewes to gase vpon, and vncleanly playes.
1598. Tofte, Alba, Div. Poems (1880), 131. Soyled with beastly Thoughts vncleanly gore.
1604. Shaks., Oth., III. iii. 139. Who ha’s that breast so pure, Wherein vncleanly Apprehensions Keepe Leetes, and Law-dayes.
1710. Addison, Tatler, No. 224, ¶ 8. I cannot excuse my fellow-Labourers for admitting into their Papers several uncleanly Advertisements.
1788. V. Knox, Winter Even., li. (1790), II. 368. He pursues his subject so far, as frequently to lead his reader to uncleanly scenes.
1871. Farrar, Witn. Hist., iv. 138. Yet there was a needless and uncleanly abjectness in several of his precepts.
2. Lacking in physical cleanness; dirty, foul, filthy.
1398. Trevisa, Earth. De P. R., XVII. xi. (1495), 609. Men that must nedes passe by stynkyng places other vnclenly rotyn places.
1503. Arnolde, Chron., 108. Item that many of the priestis and clerkis often were foule and unclenly surplesis.
1548. Elyot, Incultus, vncleanly apparaylyng, contrary to Cultus; negligence in apparaylyng.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. iii. 112. Th’ vncleanly savours or a Slaughter-house.
1604. James I., Counterbl. to Tobacco (Arb.), 100. The vncleanly and adust constitution of their bodies.
1670. Clarendon, Ess., Tracts (1727), 173. This uncomely and uncleanly wardrobe.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, III. 261. Who is there so uncleanly … as to wash his feet in the water used by another?
1805. Med. Jrnl., XIV. 340. The crouded and uncleanly parts of the town.
1849. Rock, Ch. of Fathers, I. ii. 188. Long hair on a clergyman, besides being uncleanly, is quite against the canons of the Church.
1896. Kipling, Seven Seas, The King, iii. By sleight of sword we may not win, But scuffle ’mid uncleanly smoke Of arquebus and culverin.
