a. [UN-1 7.] Merciless.
1. Of persons: Having or exhibiting no mercy.
1481. Caxton, Reynard (Arb.), 37. He was alway to hem vnmercyful.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VI., 167 b. The vnmercifull pagans and cruel Turkes.
1584. Constable, Sonn., VII. vii. Seeke with humble prayer Meanes how to mooue th’ unmercifullest fayre.
1631. High Commission Cases (Camden), 231. Though he be unmercifull to us olde men, yet we are … mercifull to him.
1667. Decay Chr. Piety, viii. ¶ 47. There are indeed no such unmerciful exactors as our own lusts.
1711. Swift, Jrnl. Stella, 7 June. Why this same Stella is so unmerciful a writer, she has hardly left any room for Dingley.
a. 1770. Chatterton, Battle of Hastings, 427. A wight unmercifull.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, III. 250. Any female … unmerciful to those who had gone astray.
transf. a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, I. xiii. The unmercifull Sea deprived me of my company.
absol. 1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, I. 445. Will not God In sunder smite the unmerciful, and break The sceptre of the wicked?
2. Of actions, etc.: Devoid of the quality of mercy.
1549. Compl. Scot., i. 23. The … distructione of oure nobil barrons … be cruel ande onmercyful slauthyr.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 18. Shee bears … that sept vnmerciful hatred.
1621. J. Taylor (Water P.), Unnat. Father, Wks. (1630), 140/2. Weeping teares of pitilesse pity, and vnmercifull mercy.
1677. Wycherley, Pl. Dealer, IV. i. When a Lover’s hopes Are dead… Life is unmerciful.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 14, ¶ 10. Some stop might be put to this unmerciful prosecution.
1778. Miss Burney, Evelina, lxi. Her unmerciful propensity to satire.
1846. Mrs. A. Marsh, Father Darcy, II. x. 170. He had resolved … upon a course of the most unmerciful policy.
3. Unsparing; excessive in amount, etc.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 69. Knock’d down by an unmerciful Bowl of Punch or two.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 207, ¶ 2. There was no enduring that this Fop should outshine us all at this unmerciful Rate.
1811. A. Clarke, Kneeling, Wks. 1837, XI. 340. In addition to the injury I sustained by his unmerciful prayer, I had the following reproof.
1835. T. Mitchell, Acharn. of Aristoph., App. 252, note. Explain then he accordingly does at the same unmerciful length as he does every other topic.
Hence † Unmercifulhead. Obs.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 256. Ryȝtwysnesse may noȝt helpe þe … in þin vnkyndenesse, in þin vnmercyfulhed.
