1. Of things: Not fit, proper, or suitable for some purpose or end. † Also const. to (a person).
In quot. 1709 app. ‘badly fitting.’
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. John i. 11 b. For there is no tyme nor place vnfit or vnconuenient for to learne those thynges whiche pertayne to euerlastynge welth.
1584. in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ., V. 82. The Earle … gave the poore man many … opprobrious wordes, unfytte and unseemely for a man of that howse and blod.
a. 1658. Lovelace, Poems (1904), 191. He that dares this, nothing to him’s unfit.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 190. Lord of few Acres, and those barren too; Unfit for Sheep or Vines, and more unfit to sow.
1709. Lond. Gaz., No. 4551/4. He wears … a brown Drugget Coat and Wastecoat … very unfit for him.
1785. Cowper, Lett. to Newton, 19 March. The sideboard-table … was equally unfit for my purpose.
1812. Crabbe, Tales, xii. 351. Those duties were to her unfit, Nor would her spirit to her tasks submit.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., v. (1842), 151. Mortars of wood, marble, or iron, are unfit for ordinary laboratory service.
1884. Thompson, Tumours of Bladder, 71. In cases considered temporarily unfit for operation through exhaustion, etc.
b. Without prepositional const.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 118. An vnfit and staffysh bow.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. xxix. Because of the unfit election she had made.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, VI. xiv. 460. Although these buildings were great, yet were they commonly ill appoynted and vnfit.
1661. Rust, Origen’s Opin., 78. If old age it self can make the Soul quit her unfit tenement.
1711. in Nairne Peerage Evidence (1874), 133. Rendered the same unfit and in human probability impossible.
1863. Hawthorne, Our Old Home (1879), 317. The anxious fidelity with which they discharged their unfit office.
c. Const. with inf. (active or passive).
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, I. xiii. A place for pleasantnes, not unfitte to flatter solitarinesse.
1611. Cotgr., Imbuvable, vndrinkable; vnfit to be drunke of.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxix. 173. There be other [diseases], not so great; which neverthelesse are not unfit to be observed.
1697. [see 1 a].
1710. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Mr. W. Montagu, Aug. There are a thousand things, not ill in themselves, which custom makes unfit to be done.
1879. Harlan, Eyesight, viii. 117. The flame … is never steady, and is unfit to read by.
2. Of persons (or other agents): Not fitted, suited, or adapted for some end or action. Also Comb. (in unfit-like) and absol.
1551. T. Wilson, Logike, D j. We see many dull wittes for lernyng, and muche vnfit that waid.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 510. To giue an vnfitte man orders,… is that kinde of sin which we doe call anothers sin.
1782. J. Brown, Nat. & Rev. Relig., II. i. (1796), 103. In propagating the gospel by so unfit-like instruments.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), III. 128. A person unknown and unfit … may happen to have the same, under an estate of inheritance.
1882. Nonconf. & Indep., 10 Oct., 986/1. The survival of the unfittest, instead of the fittest.
b. Const. to (chiefly with inf.) or for.
(a) 1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1589), 111. It maketh him good for nothing…slothfull, and unfit to every good thing.
1630. Prynne, Anti-Armin., 136. This makes them … open rebels against God, vnfit to take his word or name within their lips.
1645. Milton, Colast., Wks. 1851, IV. 349. The unfittest man that could bee to offer at a comment upon Job.
1747. H. Walpole, Lett. (1846), II. 201. I am the unfittest person in the world to give you any satisfaction on this head.
1816. Byron, Ch. Har., III. xii. But soon he knew himself the most unfit Of men to herd with Man.
1863. H. Cox, Instit., I. vii. 91. Men who are morally or intellectually unfit to be jurors.
(b) 1594. Shaks., Rich. III., I. ii. 109. Rich. He was fitter for that place then earth. An. And thou vnfit for any place, but hell.
1660. R. Coxe, Power & Subj., 73. Being of all mortal men the most unfit for a Churchman.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 102. Then release the Cow, Unfit for Love, and for the lab’ring Plough.
1736. Berkeley, Disc., Wks. 1871, III. 413. Monsters, utterly unfit for human society.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xv. III. 584. In order that one man might fill a post for which he was unfit.
1880. Dixon, Windsor, IV. i. 2. He was a man unfit for such a trust.
3. Not physically fit.
Usually const. for or with infinitive.
1665. in Verney Mem. (1907), II. 251. I grow every day more unfit for such a Jorney.
a. 1718. Prior, Amaryllis, 24. The furious heat forbids the reaper’s toil. Both beast and men for work are now unfit.
1798. S. & Ht. Lee, Canterb. T., II. 428. The Marquis was very unfit for a journey when he left Naples.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. i. 26. I am myself so disabled … as to be entirely unfit … to do any work.
4. As adv. Unfitly.
1653. J. Taylor (Water P.), Cert. Trav. uncert. Journ., 8. Sometimes the wits and tongues do, most unfit, Travell, when tongues do run before the wit.
