a. (UN-1 7 b.)
Sometimes spec. with sin, in allusion to Matt. xii. 31.
1548. R. Hutten, Sum of Diuinitie, H 3 b. Euerye persecution of the Gospell is not to be iudged synne unforgyueable.
1550. Latimer, Last Serm. bef. Edw. VI., Wks. (Parker Soc.), I. 250. This sin it was that he thought to be unforgiveable.
1832. Southey, Hist. Penins. War, III. 195. Bad as his conduct was, it would be his own fault if he made it unforgiveable.
1851. Carlyle, Sterling, I. vii. This is what it would have been the unforgivable sin to swerve from and desert.
1885. Manch. Exam., 17 June, 4/7. The circumstances … ought to stamp it as an unforgivable offence.
Hence Unforgiv(e)ably adv.
1890. Pall Mall G., 15 May, 2/3. All these books sin unforgiveably against the scientific sense.
1897. ‘Mrs. Rayner,’ Type-writer Girl, xxi. 243. I have never acted … grossly and unforgivably wrong.
