Unfledged

ppl. a. Also 7–8 unfletch’d, 7 unfletcht. [UN-¹ 8.]

  1.  Not yet furnished or covered with feathers; callow; unfeathered. Also in fig. context.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., III. iii. 27. We poore vnfledg’d Haue neuer wing’d from view o’ th’ nest.

1717.  Poem Birthday K. George. Now boldly dare, With unfletch’d Wings, Nobly to soar.

1752.  Foote, Taste, I. i. This superannuated Beldame gapes for flattery, like a nest of unfledg’d crows for food.

1821.  Scott, Kenilw., ix. The two-legged and unfledged species called mankind.

1890.  Science-Gossip, XXVI. 19/2. Two unfledged birds lying dead at the base of the wall.

  b.  poet. Of an arrow: = UNFEATHERED a. 2.

1752.  Young, Brothers, II. i. Nor can he feather there his unfledg’d shaft But from ambition’s wing.

  2.  Of things: Not fully developed; still in a crude or imperfect state.

1615.  Brathwait, Strappado (1878), 50. You that … betake to worser parts Your vnfledg’d fancies.

1649.  G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. V., xxxvii. Vnfledg’d Witt Imp’t from the ragged Sarcill Chaucer drop’t.

1790.  Sir J. Reynolds, in Leslie & Taylor, Life & Times (1865), II. x. 592. Newly hatched, unfledged opinions.

1851.  Mrs. Browning, Casa Guidi Wind., II. 270. Alas, poor people, of an unfledged will!

  3.  Of persons: Immature, inexperienced, undeveloped in knowledge, etc.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., I. iii. 65. But doe not dull thy palme, with entertainment Of each vnhatch’t, vnfledg’d Comrade.

1669.  Dryden, Prol. to Wild Gallant reviv’d, 14. By such degrees, while knowledge he did want, Our unfletch’d Author writ a Wild Gallant.

1712.  Addison, Spect., No. 305, ¶ 15. This Society of unfledged Statesmen.

1769.  Junius Lett., xxv. (1788), 159. The unfledged race of ensigns, who infest our streets.

1824.  Doyle, in Fitz-Patrick, Life (1880), I. 314. To stare with wonder … at what appears strange only because it is unknown to some unfledged traveller or essayist.

  4.  Pertaining to, characteristic of, youth and inexperience.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., I. i. 78. In those vnfledg’d dayes, was my Wife a Girle.

1760–72.  H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), III. 134. I am but as a bird from the nest, and this is the first of my unfledged excursions.

1809.  Malkin, Gil Blas, X. x. ¶ 42. My unfledged youth might lead him to take me for some graceless little truant.

1881.  World, 28 Dec. She has lost the innocence of unfledged girlhood.