[UN-1 8 + DELIVER v.1]
1. Not handed over or transferred to another’s possession; not delivered or distributed.
1472–3. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 5/2. [The money] there to be kept, undelyvered by eny mean unto You, Soverayn Lord.
1561–2. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 203. To keip the samyn in his handis and keping undeliverit to George Dowglas.
a. 1600. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., VII. xxiv. § 17. To withdraw any mite of that … bequeathed, though as yet undelivered into the sacred treasure of God.
1640–1. Kirkcudbr. War-Comm. Min. Bk. (1855), 79. We resolve to keip the commissione undelyverit till we heir from you.
1767. in Nairne Peerage Evidence (1874), 169. These presents shall be habit and repute a valid & delivered evident albeit found … undelivered the time of my death.
1775. Sheridan, Duenna, I. iii. I must slip out to seal it up, as undelivered.
1842. Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), IV. 29. If he found the fortress … undelivered, he was to remonstrate loudly against its being surrendered.
1887. Daily News, 6 Oct., 2/8. Discovery of undelivered letters.
2. Not set free or released. Also const. from.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VII. 382. The prynce … remayned longe after vndelyuered wt many other prysoners.
1653. Milton, Hirelings, Wks. 1851, V. 339. To deliver us the only People of all Protestants left still undeliver’d from the Oppressions of a simonious decimating Clergy.
1721. Strype, Eccl. Mem., III. xliii. 355. He … did as much as possible he might to see them undelivered.
1837. Wordsw., White Doe, Introd. The soul … from mortal bonds Yet undelivered.
† 3. Not dispatched or disposed of. Obs.–1
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scotl. (Rolls), II. 240. The Saxone herald thair remaning maid, Ȝit wndeliuerit on his ansuer baid.
4. Of a child: Not brought forth or born.
1595. Daniel, Civ. Wars, II. xcvii. This mighty burthen wherewithall they goe Dies vndeliuered, perishes vnborne.
5. Of a woman: Not disburdened of offspring.
1799. Med. Jrnl., II. 434. It is not improbable that … the poor woman … survived as long as she would have done, if she had been permitted to perish undelivered.
1871. A. Meadows, Man. Midwifery (ed. 2), 242. Rather than see the mother die undelivered, I used the perforator and extracted.
6. Not made or attempted.
1895. Review of Rev., Aug., 148. An attack, which now, alas, must remain for ever undelivered.
