1. fig. Of persons, their faculties, etc.: Not improved by education or training; uncultured.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. iii. 8. Whereof their uncultivated understandings scarce holding any theory, they are but bad discerners of verity.
1746. Hervey, Medit. (1818), 145. Such are the usual products of savage nature! such, the furniture of the uncultivated soul!
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, III. 146. Mr. Dennel was a man as unfavoured by nature as he was uncultivated by art.
1864. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett. (1883), III. 224. He was a coarse, uncultivated man.
1898. J. Arch, Story of Life, 247. Their uncultivated minds were like dark lanterns with a rushlight inside.
b. Of nations, times, etc.: Not improved by culture; uncivilized.
1725. Berkeley, Proposal, Wks. 1871, III. 227. They shew as much natural sense as other uncultivated nations.
1779. Mirror, No. 13. The rude and uncultivated age in which the poet is supposed to have lived.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, Pref. p. xiii. Tacitus … was certainly not acquainted with the language of our uncultivated ancestors.
2. Of land: Not cultivated or labored; untilled.
1683. Burnet, trans. More’s Utopia, 90. A part of their Soil, of which they make no use, but let it lie idle and uncultivated.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, I. 425. It looked a wild uncultivated shore.
1719. Swift, Hist. Engl., Wks. 1841, I. 555/1. The fields lay uncultivated, all the arts of civil life were banished.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xviii. II. 95. A more numerous band … were easily admitted to share a superfluous waste of uncultivated land.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 313. How many square miles, which were formerly uncultivated or ill cultivated, have … been fenced and carefully tilled.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, I. 340. The open country extends in a sea of green vegetation, which gives way … to uncultivated land.
fig. 1693. Ladies Petit., in Harl. Misc. (1809), IV. 329. Will you not provide that so many longing young ladies shall not lie unploughed, unharrowed, and uncultivated?
1738. Wollaston, Relig. Nat. (ed. 6), § 3. 55. I believe many more [things] will in time be cleard, which … are yet in their dark and uncultivated estate.
1828. B. White, in Liddon, Life Pusey (1893), I. 166. The growth of some weeds which were breaking out in the long uncultivated ground of my mind.
b. Of plants: Not produced or improved by cultivation; growing without tillage or care.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 601. Trees of Nature, and each common Bush, Uncultivated thrive.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb., I. v. The roots and uncultivated fruits of the earth.
1871. Garrod, Met. Med. (ed. 3), 286. The uncultivated plant is stated to be preferable to the cultivated.
3. Not attended to or practised; not properly trained or developed.
1684–5. Boyle, Min. Waters, 110. A First essay upon so difficult and uncultivated a Subject as I have ventur’d to treat of.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 334, ¶ 3. The Art [of dancing] … lies altogether uncultivated.
1751. Earl Orrery, Remarks Swift (1752), 50. Swift indeed has left no weapon of sarcasm untried, no branch of satyr uncultivated.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, IV. 93. The superior force of goodness, even where most simple and uncultivated.
1837. Hallam, Hist. Lit., I. iv. § 11. He became … a comic writer … in the same vein of uncultivated genius.
Hence Uncultivatedness.
1764. Harmer, Observ., Pref. There is a sameness in human nature every where under the like degree of uncultivatedness.
