ppl. a. Also 6 Sc. wnconfessyt, 7–8 unconfest. [UN-1 8.]
1. Not confessed or avowed; unacknowledged. † Also const. of.
a. 1500. in Ratis Raving, etc., 3. He bryngis to his mynd … the synis that he has done, wnconfessyt of or rapentyt.
1509. Fisher, Wks. (1876), 86. I shall … thynke on my synne that no thynge of it be vncontryte & vnconfessed.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 227 b. Leuyng no mortall synne vnconfessed.
1648. Hexham, II. Ongebiecht, Vnconfessed.
1863. Julia Kavanagh, Q. Mab, II. 306. It was love mutual—unconfessed, but ardent and impassioned.
1871. R. H. Hutton, Ess., I. 4. All unconscious and unconfessed acts of surrender to the divine influence.
b. Of persons: Not self-avowed.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., V. 817. Like princes unconfest in foreign courts, Who travel under cover.
1898. A. MacKennal, in Life, xix. (1905), 314. I think that unconfessed Christians … must have brought the gospel into Britain.
2. Not having confessed; unshriven.
1607. J. Carpenter, Plaine Mans Plough, 205. For want of Confession, thou shalt be damned, as unconfest.
1638. Penit. Conf., xii. (1657), 331. He came into the Forest to hunt, and there was wounded with an arrow; and forthwith died impenitent and unconfessed.
1808. Scott, Marm., I. Introd. 267. A sinful man, and unconfess’d, He took the Sangreal’s holy quest. Ibid. (1810), Lady of L., III. v. Alice … lock’d her secret in her breast, And died in travail, unconfess’d.
1889. ‘Mark Twain,’ Yankee at Crt. K. Arthur, xvii. It were peril to my own soul to let him die unconfessed and unabsolved.
