† 1. Incapable of being fashioned or shaped; not admitting of a material form. Obs.
1563. Man, Musculus’ Commonpl., 47. They doe sinne in that they set forth to the invisible and unfashionable God an image of an olde man with a hore beard.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 236. Thou, beeing a builder, when a stone breakes or is vnfashionable, throwest it from thee.
† 2. Badly shaped or formed. Obs.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., I. i. 22. Scarse halfe made vp, And that so lamely and vnfashionable, That dogges barke at me, as I halt by them.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VI. v. § 6. 58. He was of stature tall, of complexion pale and wan, of body somewhat grosse and vnfashionable.
1638. Strafford, Lett. (1739), II. 197. The Pikes short and ill-headed, their Arms unfashionable and very little good.
1663. Cowley, Cutter Coleman-St., Pref. The slight Reparations … of an Old and unfashionable Building.
3. Of actions, conduct, etc.: Not in accordance with the prevailing fashion.
1648. Boyle, Seraph. Love (1659), 158. As Unfashionable as such a Profession may seem in a Gentleman not yet two and Twenty.
1693. Locke, Educ., § 70. All the Actions of Childishness, and unfashionable Carriage, and whatever Time and Age will of it self be sure to reform.
1759. Johnson, Idler, No. 48, ¶ 8. They give the mind an unfashionable cast.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. ix. (1869), I. 101. It is there [sc. in Holland] unfashionable not to be a man of business.
1843. Bethune, Sc. Fireside Stor., 16. She had herself been bred in the country where unfashionable revels of this kind are quite common.
4. Of persons: Not following the current fashion; not living in a fashionable way.
1660. F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 340. These unfashionable Doctors had mind on nothing but to satisfie their insatiable avarice.
1693. Congreve in Dryden’s Juvenal, XI. (1697), 290. Then, that Unfashionable Man am I, With me they’d starve for want of Ivory.
1704. Steele, Tender Husb., V. i. Let me come at the intruder on ladies’ private hours—the unfashionable monster!
1766. [Anstey], Bath Guide, i. 70. When Sim, unfashionable Ninny, In public calls me Cousin Jenny.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. ix. They sat side by side, a hopelessly Unfashionable pair.
1890. Spectator, 16 Aug. Far from the madding crowd of fashionable or unfashionable society.
b. sb. An unfashionable person.
1822. [Lady Blessington], Magic Lantern, 19. The crowds … tempted me to stroll into that gay rendesvous of fashionables, as well as unfashionables.
1831. Westm. Rev., XIV. 426. The fashionables are almost uniformly witty and agreeable, the unfashionables stupid and disagreeable.
Hence Unfashionableness.
1693. Locke, Educ., § 184. Natural Unfashionableness being much better than apish, affected Postures.
1884. Contemp. Rev., July, 102. All that people will see in this latter sort of work … will be its shapelessness, plus its unfashionableness.
