1. Harshly, unpleasantly, disagreeably.
1581. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 42. Telling of a man, whose beloued Lambe was vngratefullie taken from his bosome.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal (1697), p. lxxxi. It tickles aukwardly with a kind of pain;… we are pleas’d ungratefully, and, if I may say so, against our liking.
1698. Hearne, Duct. Hist. (1714), I. 385. Cæsar … returned to Rome and triumphed, though a little ungratefully to some of Pompey’s friends.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, II. v. The musick … sounded more ungratefully in her ears than the noise of a screech-owl.
† 2. Without due return or gratitude. Obs.–1
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., P 1 b. Vngratefully hath God giuen thee long peace and plenty, since … thy peace and plentie hath begotte more sinnes then warre euer heard of.
3. With lack of gratitude.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Hum. Lieutenant, III. vi. I am not greedy of your lives and fortunes, Nor do I gape ungratefully to swallow ye.
1692. Washington, trans. Milton’s Def. Pop., M.’s Wks. 1738, I. 537. Yet these very men did a great part of the People ungratefully desert in the midst of their undertaking.
1737. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 493. A Person in whom your Majesty has placed a Trust and who has so Ungratefully abused that Trust.
1798. Pennant, Hindoostan, II. 47. He continued in employ till 1754, when he was ungratefully superseded.
1856. N. Brit. Rev., XXVI. 195. Having been coldly and (as he thought) ungratefully treated by the Whig leaders.
