Unlaid

ppl. a. and sb. [UN-¹ 8 b. Cf. ON. úlagðr; also Du. ongelegd, G. ungelegt (of eggs).]

  1.  Not laid, placed, or set.

1468–9.  Paston Lett., Suppl. (1901), 124. The lenger that it [sc. the roof-tile] lythe unleyd the wers it wyll be.

1570.  Levins, Manip., 197. Vnlayd, non positus.

1597.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lvi. § 5. The first foundation of the world being as yet vnlayd.

1656.  Osborne, Adv. Son, Lett. Wks. 1722, I. B 5. The severest Curse remaining in the custody of Fortune, yet unlaid upon me.

1872.  Daily News, 12 Aug. The spot where the final stone of the great structure yet hung unlaid.

  b.  ? Laid out (as a corpse); laid in the grave.

c. 1635.  B. Jonson, Underwoods, Petition Chas. I. Parts of me they judg’d decay’d; But we last out still unlay’d.

  c.  Of a hedge: (see LAY v.¹ 6 b).

1868.  Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 255. If … the shoots are cut toward the bottom growth of the wood as downward in an unlaid one, or against the leaning direction of the layers in a laid hedge.

  2.  Of spirits: Not laid by exorcism.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., IV. ii. 278. Guid. Ghost vnlaid forbeare thee. Arui. Nothing ill come neere thee.

1634.  Milton, Comus, 434. No evil thing that walks by night,… Blew meager Hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost,… Hath hurtfull power o’re true virginity.

1780.  Burke, Œcon. Reform, Wks. III. 297. Ghosts of unlaid accountants, haunt the houses.

1806.  Moore, Epist., VIII. i. Pagan spirits, by the Pope unlaid.

1831.  Wordsw., ‘The forest huge,’ 11. The feudal Warrior-chief, a Ghost unlaid, Hath still his castle.

1888.  (title) Unlaid Ghost: a Study in Metempsychosis.

  3.  Not laid open, out, etc.

1608.  Shaks., Per., I. ii. 89. How many worthy princes’ bloods were shed, To keep his bed of blackness unlaid ope.

1674.  N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 62. Though they be unlaid out in themselves, they may be laid out by body laid in.

  4.  Not covered or plated with something.

1648.  Hexham, II. Ongebleckt, Vnlaid with plates of Lettine.

  5.  In technical uses, e.g., of a rope (see LAY v. 37), of paper (see LAID ppl. a.), etc.

  In recent dicts.

  6.  sb. A blanket made from untarred wool. Sc.

a. 1869.  J. Younger, Autobiog. (1881), iv. 38. He rolled up his pipes, bag and all, in the blankets above him…-which bag imparted that election-dinner stain to her best white unlaids.