1. † a. Not attended to; neglected. Obs.
a. 1300. St. Gregory, 1064, in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr., LVII. 70. Ȝe witeþ wel hit may nout longe holye churche vnloked be.
b. Not looked at, on, to, etc.; unregarded, unheeded, unexamined.
1563. Nowel, Serm. bef. Queen (1853), 226. Such errors or heresy ought not … to be unlooked unto.
1581. W. S., Compend. or Briefe Exam., 3. Theyr husbandry unlookte to at home.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., Ded. Leauing no securitie saue … vnlookt on pouertie.
1654. C. Wase, Gratius’ Cyneget, Pref. 7. The occasion that a polite and classical Poet … should have been so long unlook’d into,… and unsought for in our Land.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics, I. 214. The wares lay unlooked at and untouched.
2. Not looked for; unexpected, unanticipated. (In predicative use sometimes quasi-adv.)
1535. Coverdale, Wisd. xi. 7. Thou gauest vnto thine awne a plenteous water vnloked for.
1544. Betham, Precepts War, II. xli. K viij b. When they be wythout watch,… then sodaynlye, and vnloked for, rushe vppon them.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 112. The vnlookt-for assault of Achillas.
1672. T. Venn, Milit. Observ., 192. He shall see them [sc. sentinels] changed at due time, and shall now and then visit them unlook’d for.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XXII. 164. Oh curst event! and oh unlook’d-for aid!
1837. J. D. Land, New S. Wales, I. p. v. The causes … producing so unlooked-for and so unfortunate a result.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 30. Elated by an unlooked-for victory.
† b. Without prep., = prec. Obs.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 74. Thei … shal bee able to abashe a righte worthy man,… through the sodein quip & vnloked frumpe geuen.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., I. iii. 214. God, I pray him, That none of you may liue his naturall age, But by some vnlook’d accident cut off.
1618. J. Taylor (Water P.), Penniless Pilg., C 2 b. This vnlook’d pleasure, was to me such pleasure, That [etc.].
Hence Unlookedforness, rare–1.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. xvi. The unlookedfornesse of his comming.
