ppl. a. [UN-1 8.]
1. Of persons, etc.: a. Not authorized by a formal license to carry on some occupation, industry, etc.
1634. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Commission, App. IV. 428. 100 unlicensed alehowses.
1643. [see 2 a].
1746. Francis, trans. Horace, Epist., II. i. 154. A doubtful Drug unlicens’d Doctors fear.
1845. McCulloch, Taxation, II. x. A fine … rigorously exacted from unlicensed dealers.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xx. IV. 417. With great difficulty and after long search the most important of all the unlicensed presses was discovered.
b. Not furnished with authority, sanction, or formal permission to do something.
1608. Shaks., Per., I. iii. 17. Why, as it were unlicens’d of your loves, He would depart, I’ll give some light unto you.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., To Rdr. A 3 b. The Papists restraint of the Laity unlicensed, from reading it translated in a known Tongue.
1785. Pope, Odyss., XIII. 175. To warn the thoughtless self-confiding train No more unlicens’d thus to brave the main.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, IV. 414. Did she upon thy parting steps bestow Her free-will blessing, or hast thou set forth … unlicensed and unblest?
2. a. Of books, etc.: Published without license.
1643. Order, in Milton’s Areop. (Arb.), 27. All unlicensed Printing Presses, and all Presses any way imployed in the printing of scandalous or unlicensed Papers.
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 53. All scandalous and unlicenc’t books.
1647. (title) An Ordinance against unlicensed or scandalous Pamphlets.
b. Not authorized or sanctioned.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Apol. Liturgy, § 135. Many such cases will occurre in … unlicenc’d prayers.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Dial. Dead, Reas. Oaths, Wks. 1720, IV. 184. Is any … of the good People of Doctors Commons [turned] to unlicens’d Marriages?
1728. Pope, Dunciad, IV. 228. For Attic Phrase in Plato let them seek, I poach in Suidas for unlicens’d Greek.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, Introd. No less would our sexton … have held it an unlicensed intrusion.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng., II. 193. The clergy had promised to abstain … from unlicensed legislation.
3. Free from requiring a license.
1644. Milton (title), Areopagitica: a Speech … For the Liberty of Vnlicenc’d Printing, To the Parlament of England.
1863. H. Cox, Instit., I. ix. 146. This Act was kept in force … until 1694, when … it expired. The liberty of unlicensed printing dates from that period.
4. Unregulated, lawless. rare–1.
1828. Tytler, Hist. Scot., I. 183. This prelate … with much personal risk, owing to the unlicensed state of the Country,… travelled with his suit … as far as Kirkcudbright.
