a. [UN-1 7.]
1. Not adapted or suited to the Court; esp. not sufficiently polished or refined: a. Of persons, their attributes, etc.
1598. Chapman, Contn. Marlowe’s Hero & Leander, III. 251. This euent vncourtly Hero thought Her inward guilt would in her lookes haue wrought.
1632. Massinger & Field, Fatal Dowry, III. i. You will find it safer Rather to be uncourtly than immodest.
a. 1662. Heylin, Laud (1668), 57. A man of independent Fortune … but otherwise of an uncourtly disposition.
1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, II. ix. A little squat, uncourtly figure.
1838. Emerson, Misc. Papers, Milton, Wks. (Bohn), III. 294. Lord Bacon … shrinks and falters before the absolute and uncourtly Puritan.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., IV. xxiv. 491. The retired and uncourtly scholar.
b. Of things or actions.
1640. Habington, Q. of Arragon, I. i. B ij b. His Garbe was so uncourtly.
1727. Pope, Lett. to Gay, 16 Oct. I can only add a plain, uncourtly Speech.
1775. Adair, Amer. Ind., 341. The uncourtly leave he took of our gallant, and faithful old friends.
1827. Pollok, Course T., IX. 653. No longer hid by coarse uncourtly garb.
2. Not subservient to, not seeking to please, the Court.
1712. Swift, Cond. Allies, Wks. 1751, II. 127. The present Lord Treasurer,… not entering into those refinements of paying the public money upon private considerations, hath been so uncourtly as to stop it.
1821. W. H. Lyttelton, in Corr. Lady Lyttelton, ix (1912), 237. The Archbishop’s sermon [at the Coronation]…, on the whole uncourtly enough to … displease the courtiers.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xx. IV. 476. Two eminent orators, who had, during some years, been on the uncourtly side of every question.
