ppl. a. [UN-1 8.]
1. Not limited or restricted in amount, extent, or degree: a. Of power or authority, a rule, etc.
c. 1445. Pecock, Donet, 129. Which gouernaunce in it silf is vnlimited and vnassigned to eny special tyme.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. i. (1912), 355. It must be an unlimited Monarchy. Ibid., xx. 472. I know thy power is not unlimited.
1644. Hunton, Vind. Treat. Monarchy, v. 45. That the Power of the Monarch in this Frame is not unlimited.
1690. [see prec.].
1717. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to C’tess of Bristol, 1 April. The unlimited power of these fellows.
1777. Cook, Third Voyage, II. xi. (1784), I. 406. The power of the king is unlimited.
a. 1850. Calhoun, Wks. (1874), III. 234. Money is not only the sinew of war, but of politics, over which … it exercises almost unlimited control. Ibid., VI. 133. A government of unlimited powers.
b. In other applications.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. iv. (1912), 371. All such, whom … youth-like mindes did fill with unlimited desires.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., III. ii. The curse of Heaven raines In plagues unlimited through all his daies.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 18. The expences of the Court … [were] vast, and unlimited by the old good rules of economy.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Praise Drunken., Wks. 1730, I. 35. Their highest excellency consists in having their will unlimited by any superior power.
1782. Priestley, Corrupt. Chr., I. II. 158. The absolute and unlimited declarations of the divine mercy.
1846. Mrs. Marsh, Father Darcy, II. 149. My confidence in his talents and energy is unlimited.
1878. Jevons, Prim. Pol. Econ., 19. We never want an unlimited quantity of anything.
transf. 1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. II. vi. So violent … are the Limited Patriots and the Unlimited.
2. Not limited in number.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 308. Four Wives the Law tolerates, Concubines are unlimited.
3. Math. (See quots.)
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. s.v., Unlimited Problem … is such a Problem in Mathematicks, as is capable of Infinite Solutions.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 31/1. Unlimited,… is frequently used by mathematical writers, in the same manner as Indefinite, to avoid the entrance of the word Infinite. It is also used to describe a problem which may have an infinite number of answers, and which is called an unlimited problem.
