a. [UN-1 7 b.]

1

  1.  Unable to claim merit.

2

1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., III. vii. 155. Your loue deserues my thankes, but my desert Vnmeritable, shunnes your high request. Ibid. (1601), Jul. C., IV. i. 12. This is a slight vnmeritable man, Meet to be sent on Errands.

3

1797.  Ld. Thurlow, in Cowper’s Wks. (1836), III. 212. Cowper’s distemper persuades him that he is unmeritable and unacceptable to God.

4

1884.  Child, Ballads, II. 393/1. An Italian ballad, a slight and unmeritable thing.

5

1885.  Swinburne, Misc. (1886), 137. He was content to rely on his … simplicity alone; with a result sometimes merely trivial and unmeritable.

6

  † 2.  Unmerited, undeserved. Obs.

7

1635.  J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Banish’d Virg., 22. You … are … come to undoe me with your unmeritable favours.

8

1666.  Earl Orrery, in St. Lett. (1743), II. 93. Those unmeritable expressions of your grace’s kindness.

9