[f. as prec.]
1. The state or fact of being mentally unconscious or unaware of something.
1779–81. Johnson, L. P., Addison, Wks. III. 51. The work did not suffer much by his unconsciousness of its commencement.
1794. Paley, Evid., I. ix. § 1. We perceive also in Clement a total unconsciousness of doubt whether these were the real words of Christ.
1837. Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., II. 336. In a society where things like these are said and done … there is a prevalent unconsciousness of the existing wrong.
1870. J. H. Newman, Gram. Assent, II. vi. 281. Our unconsciousness of those innumerable acts of assent, which we are incessantly making.
b. Without const.
1828. Lytton, Pelham, III. xx. It was Dawson who shut the door, through utter unconsciousness.
1883. Farrar, Early Chr., I. 264. Josephus … falsifies and colours…. Philo on the other hand wrote with far greater unconsciousness.
2. The fact of being devoid of consciousness.
1759. Johnson, Rasselas, xlvii. All the notices of sense and investigations of science concur to prove the unconsciousness of matter.
3. The state of being unconscious; loss of consciousness; insensibility.
1849. Froude, Nemesis of Faith, 223. When he came he found her in a state of almost unconsciousness.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par. (1870), II. III. 135. The peace of dull unconsciousness His wild torn heart at last did bless.
1890. Retrospect Med., CII. 160. A longer or shorter period of continued unconsciousness, without convulsion.
