[UN-1 8.]
1. Not restrained or restricted in respect of freedom of action. Also const. to.
1607. Beaum. & Fl., Woman Hater, III. i. Were we not made our selves, free, unconfin’d Commanders of our own affections?
1624. Massinger, Renegado, I. ii. It is his pleasure…, provided (For so far I am unconfined) that I Affect and like your person.
1694. Gracian’s Courtier’s Orac., 49. Never to be too forward nor passionate, is the sign of a free and unconfined heart.
1709. Pope, Ess. Crit., 639. Blest with a taste exact, yet unconfin’d.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 2, ¶ 1. His being unconfined to Modes and Forms.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 713. Pure is the nymph, though lib’ral of her smiles, And chaste, though unconfin’d, whom I extol.
1808. Scott, Marm., IV. Introd. 163. Oft our talk its topic chang’d, And … Rang’d, unconfin’d, from grave to gay.
1820. J. P. Neale, Views Seats Eng., etc. III. Porkington, 2. To the east the eye roams unconfined over the rich and highly ornamented plains of Shropshire.
b. Unlimited, unbounded.
1626. Massinger, Roman Actor, I. ii. As his rule is infinite, his pleasures Are unconfined.
1662. Bp. Hopkins, Serm. (1685), 26. We begin to grow more unconfined in our knowledge, as well as our being.
a. 1672. Sterry, Freed. Will (1675), 109. As an heavenly Marriage eternally established in its own unconfined Unity.
a. 1721. Prior, Ess. Opinion, Wks. 1907, II. 202. However our Vanities or desires are unconfined.
1738. Glover, Leonidas, XII. 82. Now devastation, unconfin’d, involves The Malian fields.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), IV. 279. The former was subject to some restraint…; the latter consisting in general and unconfined dominion.
2. Not kept in confinement; not shut up or enclosed; not secured or kept in place.
1649. Lovelace, To Althea, i. When Love with unconfined wings Hovers within my Gates.
a. 1711. Ken, Psyche, Poet. Wks. IV. 299. The Soul in Vision seem’d from Flesh unloos’d To fly abroad, and spatiate unconfin’d.
1739. ‘R. Bull,’ trans. Dedekindus’ Grobianus, 5. Thy Hairs, uncut and unconfin’d, With loose Disorder wanton in the Wind.
1762. R. Guy, Pract. Obs. Cancers, 30. The Matter having a free and unconfined Discharge.
1808. Scott, Marm., III. Introd. 22. Then, wild as cloud, or stream, or gale, Flow on, flow unconfin’d, my Tale!
1832. Ht. Martineau, Ella of Gar., i. 9. Her hair [was] unconfined by any cap.
1892. Greener, Breech Loader, 163. Unconfined wood powder … may be ignited without obtaining a third of the available explosive force.
Hence Unconfinedly adv.; Unconfinedness.
1654–66. Earl Orrery, Parthen. (1676), 598. Sorrow, to which they so justly and unconfinedly abandon’d themselves.
1673. A. Walker, Lees Lachrymans, 3. The healthful Vigour, the agile Unconfinedness,… of his Youth.
1687. Dryden, Hind & P., II. 617. Prove any Church, oppos’d to this our head, So one, so pure, so unconfin’dly spread.
1899. Macm. Mag., LXXIX. 455/2. The sense of the desert was upon me, the embracing, soothing spirit of unconfinedness.
