[UN-1 7. Cf. ON. úkonungligr.]
1. Unbecoming to a king; not in accordance with the position or character of a king.
1600. Heywood, 2nd Pt. Edw. IV., Wks. 1874, I. 100. Edward of England, these are vnkingly words.
1658. Osborne, Q. Eliz., 12. An Art lost in these latter times, or thought unkingly.
a. 1661. Holyday, Persius (1673), 310. When cruel lust … moves … fierce kings To act unworthy and unkingly things.
1702. Rowe, Tamerlane, I. i. 3. With most Un-Kingly Baseness, H’has ta’en the Advantage of their absent Arms.
1765. Burke, Tracts on Popery Laws, Wks. 1812, V. 250. [Louis XIV.] had recourse … to an unkingly denial of the fact which made against him.
1853. Trench, Proverbs, 41. He was about, in somewhat unsoldierly and unkingly fashion, immediately to retire.
1881. Shorthouse, J. Inglesant, I. xii. 176. To introduce Popery … by ways the most unkingly and perfidious.
2. Unlike a king.
1718. Pope, Iliad, XIV. 90. What shameful words (unkingly as thou art) Fall from that trembling tongue and timorous heart?
