Forms: 4–5 vnliche, 4 onlyche; 4–7 vnlike (5 -lyk, 6 -lyke), 7, 9 unlike. [UN-1 11 b. Cf. UNILICHE adv.]
† 1. a. Unevenly, unequally; in a higher or lower degree. Obs.
a. 1300. Fragm. Seven Sins, 55, in E. E. P. (1862), 20. Worldis wel falliþ vnliche, and noȝt euch man ilich.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 89. Theologie in such a wise Of hih science and hih aprise Above alle othre stant unlike.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. xvi. 2594. Na man … euer couþ tell … A maire commendable memore, As þai did of þis pure kinrik, In þat batall bodin vnlike.
† b. Incomparably. Obs.
14[?]. R. Gloucester’s Chron. (MS. Digby 205), fol. 19 b. Cloten hadde most riȝte to þis kyngeryche But þe oþere were strenger & rycher vnliche [v.r. onlyche].
c. 1425. Cursor M., 5325 (Trin.). Þe kyng lete write lettres ȝare To gider alle … Þe beste in þat londe vnliche.
2. † a. Differently, diversely. Also const. to.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 5. Whiche the Romayns vsed, but vnlyke to vs.
1552. Huloet, Vnlyke or in a diuers fashyon, dissimiliter.
1599. in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ., V. 350. Some tyme yt pleaseth God to reveale his wille … by dreames, as He did to Joseph, Pharo, and others, and here not unlike to His designed martyr.
b. In a manner differing from (that of a specified person).
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., I. i. 189. Oft haue I seene the haughty Cardinall … demeane himselfe Vnlike the Ruler of a Common-weale.
1619. Sir A. Gorges, trans. Bacon’s De Sap. Vet., 82. This Loue … directing his pace … by that which it perceaues neerest, not vnlike blind men that goe by feeling.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 14. A little haire before, bauld else-where, not vnlike occasion.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xxi. The Master has treated me unlike a gentleman.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., II. 387. They stand apart from all the others, because, unlike these, they applied [etc.].
† 3. Improbably; unlikely. Obs.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. V., 67 b. Some say that he was therto stirred … by the dolphyn (and not vnlike).
1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. v. 38. And, though (vnlike) they should for euer last, Yet in my truthes assurance I rest fixed fast.
