Unfaithfulness

[UN-¹ 12.]

  † 1.  Lack of faith; infidelity. Obs.

1388.  Wyclif, 2 Tim. ii. 16. But eschewe thou vnhooli and veyn spechis, for whi tho profiten myche to vnfeithfulnesse.

1395.  Purvey, Remonstr. (1851), 61. Unfeithful men that shulen be dampnid uttirli … if thei dien in unfeithfulnesse.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 129. Therof foloweth somtyme infidelite or vnfaythfulnes.

1561.  T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., I. 56. Whoso therfore wil beware of this vnfaithfulnesse, let him kepe alwayes in remembrance [etc.].

  2.  The quality of being unfaithful; lack of good faith or fidelity.

c. 1480.  Henryson, Test. Cres., 570. Traisting in vther als greit vnfaithfulnes, Als vnconstant, and als vntrew of fay.

1532.  in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. III. II. 251. As towchinge the onfaythfulnes … of Father Forest, I dyd wryte of unto my Lady Marcas of Penbroke.

1590.  Swinburne, Testaments, 218. So the legataries and children of the deceased are often defrauded … by the vnfaithfulnesse of the executor.

1685.  Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., Matt. xxv. 26–27. Unprofitableness and omission of duty, is damnable unfaithfulness in us that are but Stewards and Servants.

1737.  in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 493. It contains a clear Proof of the Unfaithfullness of a Person in whom Your Majesty has placed a Trust.

1752.  Carte, Hist. Eng., III. 14. Henry was in the height of his resentment, at the unfaithfulness of his allies.

1842.  J. B. Fraser, Allee Neemroo, II. 31. If you impute to me any unfaithfulness towards you, I swear that you are deceived.

1881.  R. W. Church, Cathedral & Univ. Serm., v. (1892), 59. The taint … of insincerities, of treacheries, of unfaithfulnesses to light.

  b.  spec. (Cf. UNFAITHFUL a. 2 d.)

1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, lxvi. Is it unfaithfulness to my husband? I scorn it and defy anybody to prove it.

1851.  Froude, Short Stud. (1867), II. 191. Nor, again, was unfaithfulness … conclusively fatal against a wife.