a. [UN-1 7.]
1. Of money: Not current; not in circulation.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., III. iii. 16. I can no other answer make, but thankes, And thankes: and euer oft good turnes, Are shuffel’d off with such vncurrant pay.
1639. S. Du Verger, trans. Camus’ Admir. Events, a 3. It is a strange thing, that reasonable spirits can be payd with such counterfeit and uncurrant coyne.
1655. trans. Sorel’s Com. Hist. Francion, II. 39. My neighbours … cryed me down more than uncurrent Money.
1855. W. Irving, Washington, lxii. II. 497. Paper money issued by Congress which was uncurrent among the Canadians.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 484. After a certain amount of wear a gold coin … loses weight and becomes legally uncurrent.
fig. 1618. Fletcher, Loyal Subj., II. v. Thou crackt uncurrant Lord.
1646. G. Daniel, Poems, Wks. (Grosart), I. 201. Such for vncurrant Knights or new-coyn’d Squire Might suite.
1827. Pollok, Course T., VIII. 597. Honour … Bearing the signature of Time alone, Uncurrent in Eternity, and base!
2. Not commonly accepted or recognized.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., III. ii. 50. Since he came, With what encounter so vncurrant, I Haue strayn’d t’appeare thus.
1639. Ld. Digby, etc. Lett. conc. Relig. (1651), 77. Conceits of their own, and other uncurrent doctrines.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., II. xiii. 233. ’Tis hard … to be sure, that his present Repentance is not of the same ignoble and uncurrent kind.
3. Of a warrant: Having no legal force; invalid.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., V. § 156. The Messenger would scarce have return’d to have reported how uncurrent such Warrants were like to be in York.
Hence Uncurrentness.
1642. Sir T. Roe, Sp., in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), IV. 457. Another cause of scarcity of coin, may be the over-strict rule of the uncurrentness of any good coin.
