a. [UN-1 7 and 5 b.] Not limited by or subject to conditions or stipulations; absolute, unlimited, complete.
1666. Dryden, Ann. Mirab., cclxix. O pass not, Lord, an absolute Decree, Or bind thy Sentence unconditional.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 19. Our Saviour left a Power in his Church to absolve men from their Sins; but this was not an absolute or unconditional Power.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., II. ii. I. 399. The obligation of an immediate and unconditional payment of such bank notes as soon as presented.
1839. G. P. R. James, Louis XIV., I. 404. The chamber of accounts leaned towards unconditional obedience, and prepared to quit Paris.
1844–8. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, II. 351. He pretended that he had come to offer an unconditional surrender of the fortress.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, viii. There must be nothing about possibility…. Give me an unconditional promise, or I shall not leave you!
Hence Unconditionalness.
1843. Mill, Logic, I. 372. If there be any meaning which confessedly belongs to the term necessity, it is unconditionalness.
1884. Expositor, Feb., 151. The unconditionalness of God’s election.
