† 1. Unlikeness, dissimilarity, discrepancy. Obs.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 273/1. I fond myself right fer fro the in a Regyon of unlykelyhode [L. dissimilitudinis].
1550. Thomas, Ital. Dict., Disaguaglianza, vnseemelinesse, vnlikelyhoode, or the difference that is betwene the comparison of one thyng to an other.
1564. Brief Exam., 20 b. Euery man … may see a great vnlikelyhood betwixt those tymes and ours.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 573. By which likenesse in name great confusion and vnlikelihoods haue happened in Historie.
2. The state or fact of being unlikely; improbability.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. John, xix. 109. So muche vnlikelyhoode was it, that the felowship of punishement should defyle hym.
1598. R. Bernard, trans. Terence, Andria, II. ii. Hauing gathered by sundrie signes and coniectures the vnlikelihood of the marriage.
1646. Earl Monm., trans. Biondi’s Civil Wars, IX. 199. By the Unlikelyhood and Impossibility that he should escape the hands of a Crafty … Uncle.
1695. J. Edwards, Perfect. Script., 238. There was no unlikelihood of the thing.
1767. Mrs. Delany, Life & Corr., Ser. II. (1862), I. 116. Knowing the unlikelihood of your being to return to us.
1794. Paley, Evid., II. viii. The extreme unlikelihood that such men should engage in such a measure.
1860. Miss Yonge, Stokesley Secr., xii. The exceeding unlikelihood of a girl like Elizabeth committing … a theft.
1877. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. vi. 462. Statements which have no inherent unlikelihood in them.
b. With a and pl. An improbable occurrence, fact, statement, etc.
a. 1500. Leland, Itin. (1769), II. 35. Dyvers Brethren dyed…, and by a great vnlykelihod al the Landes descendid to … the Yonggest of the Brethren.
1561. Daus, trans. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573), 2. I will shew the lykelyhodes and the vnlykelyhodes.
1647. Jer. Taylor, Lib. Proph., ii. 41. The rarest mixture … of unlikelihoods that I have observed.
1682. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), I. 188. By the severall contradictions and unlikelyhoods in his evidence.
1738. G. Lillo, Marina, III. ii. What strange unlikelihood assaults my mind!
1814. Southey, Roderick, XII. 14. I will believe that we have days in store Of hope,… Yea, maugre all unlikelihoods,… of peace.
1862. Lever, Barrington, xv. He hesitated how to measure an unlikelyhood.
