[UN-1 7. Cf. MDu. onmanlijc (Du. -lijk), MHG. unman-, unmenlîch (G. unmännlich), ON. úmannlig-r (MSw. omanliker).]
1. Dishonorable or degrading to a man.
c. 1475. Cath. Angl., 227/2. vn-Manly,… inhumanus.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., I. i. 186. Be thou a prey vnto the House of Yorke … for this vnmanly deed.
1603. Dekker, Wonderfull Yeare, Wks. (Grosart), I. 108. Now … thou … basely descendest into bruitish & vnmanly passions.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, II. 810. Why this unmanly rage?
1706. S. Clarke, Attrib. (ed. 2), 10. All mocking and scoffing at Religion … is the most unmanly and unreasonable thing in the World.
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, V. vii. [To] be guilty of … unmanly cruelty.
1817. Coleridge, Zapolya, II. I. i. Your servants … Offer’d gross insults, in unmanly sort, To our village maidens.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiii. III. 310. Hatred, which showed itself by unmanly outrages to defenceless captives.
2. Not manly; unbefitting (or unlike) a man in respect of fortitude or energy; weak-tempered, effeminate.
a. 1547. Surrey, Æneid, IV. 276. That Paris now, with his unmanly sorte, With mitred hats … His rape enjoyth.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Infractus, A softe and vnmanly fourme of speakyng.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. ii. 94. ’Tis vnmanly greefe, It shewes a will most incorrect to Heauen.
1682. Flavel, Fear, Ded. An unmanly and unchristian faintness.
1743. Francis, trans. Hor., Odes, V. x. 17. Thy vile, vnmanly wailings.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, IV. 122. An unmanly fop.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., I. xii. Others sate and wept, And to the reckless gales unmanly moaning kept.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. 339. Unmanly and pernicious luxury.
