1. Not in accordance or conformity with the physical nature of persons or animals.
a. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 6. Also in þe veynez ar gendred vnnaturale humours. Ibid., 68. [It] doþ away wicked colour & vnnatural, and it restoreþ natural colour.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg., B j. He ought to knowe the vnnaturall thyuges, that is ye meate, the drynke, &c.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., 1 b/1. Physiologia … wherin is to be … noted on the seaven vnnaturalle thinges.
1614. Latham, Falconry, I. xiii. 48. Which is vnnaturall, and therfore must needs be vnwholsome [for the hawk].
1617. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1639), 301. After extraction of unnaturall things, forced into the wound.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), IV. 71. The Black Rat … is … possessed of all the voracious and unnatural appetites of the former.
1805. Med. Jrnl., XIV. 246. The mother … was very solicitous about her on account of this, her unnatural situation, as she always thought it.
1846. Mrs. A. Marsh, Father Darcy, II. xi. 179. The tones of their voice sounded … hollow, hoarse, and unnatural.
1890. Retrospect Med., CII. 236. The unnatural state occasioned by the presence of sugar.
2. Not in accordance or agreement with the usual course of nature. Also absol.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., ci. (1533), 42/1. Berynge in mynde the vnnaturall deth of her parentes.
1605. Shaks., Macb., II. iv. 10. ’Tis vnnaturall, Euen like the deed that’s done.
1653. W. Ramesey, Astrol. Restored, 250. There shall be … unnatural Dews and Rains.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., i. 13. Nothing can interfere with any proposition that is true, but it must likewise interfere with nature, and consequently be unnatural, or wrong in nature.
1814. Scott, Lord of Isles, V. xv. Faintly the moon’s pale beams supply That ruddy light’s unnatural dye.
1846. Trench, Mirac., 15. The miracle is not thus unnatural, while the unnatural, the contrary to order, is of itself the ungodly.
1854. Kingsley, Misc. (1859), I. 85. Unnatural weather, so that a fourteen days’ voyage takes forty days.
b. Abnormal; monstrous.
1516. Reg. Privy Seal Scotl., I. 431/2. The said Johne is be the hand of God dum and defe and unnaturale.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., II. 52. Which vnnaturall Childe being brought, I was amazed … to behold the deformity of Nature.
c. Devoid of natural qualities or characteristics; artificial.
1746. Francis, trans. Horace, Epist., I. x. 28. Among your Columns, rich with various Dyes, Unnatural Woods with aukward Art arise.
1827. Steuart, Planter’s G. (1828), 7. Whatever there was of unnatural or formal,… is now banished from the English garden.
1828. Lytton, Pelham, III. iii. Hence, you perceive all people timid, stiff, unnatural, and ill at ease.
3. At variance with natural feeling or moral standards; excessively cruel or wicked.
1529. More, Suppl. Souls, Wks. 314/2. In this thei shew their affeccion much more vnnatural & abhominable [etc.].
1571. Act 13 Eliz., c. 2 § 1. Moste wycked and unnatural Rebellyon hathe ensued.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., xi. 178. The vnnatural’st deed that e’re was done by man.
1642. D. Rogers, Naaman, To Rdr. § 2. Even an unnaturall cruelty.
1732. Col. Rec. Pennsylv., III. 497. A final Period was to be putt to all such unnatural Differences.
a. 1800. Cowper, Odyss. (ed. 2), II. 175. To thrust the mother forth, Who gave me birth…, were a deed Unnat’ral and impossible to me.
1828. Scott, Tapestr. Chamb., ad fin. In yon fatal apartment incest and unnatural murder were committed.
1864. Kingsley, Rom. & T., i. 4. They tar them on to the unnatural fight.
b. Of persons: Devoid of natural feeling; acting at variance with the dictates of nature.
1552. Huloet, Vnnaturall to parentes, bactri, bactriani.
1579. Gosson, Sch. Abuse (Arb.), 66. Iupiter,… though hee were a cruell tyrant, an vnnaturall childe,… by Poets is made the king of gods.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., II. iii. 113. A most vnworthy, and vnnatural Lord Can doe no more.
1685. in P. Wright, New Bk. Martyrs (1784), 804/1. As vnnatural as children that seek the ruin of their parents.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, xxix. The messengers of Jehovah’s wrath to the unnatural child, who thinks of a stranger’s captivity before a parent’s.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, III. xix. 97. It would be impolitic in the Athenians … to countenance the revolt of an unnatural colony.
1871. Jowett, Plato, II. 408. Then he is a parricide, and a cruel unnatural son to an aged parent.
† 4. Illegitimate; having no natural right or claim. Obs.
c. 1550. Bale, K. Johan (Camden), 4. K. I. They are thy chylderne, thou oughtest to say them good. Y. Nay, bastardes they are, unnaturall by the rood.
1570. Homily agst. Rebellion, ¶ 1. It may seeme more then maruell, that anye subictes woulde … holde with vnnaturall forraigne vsurpers.
5. At variance with what is natural, usual, or to be expected; unusual, strange.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, I. i. They ranne unto him, and pulling him backe,… by force stickled that unnatural fray.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., II. § 104. With some cloudiness (which was not unnatural) and trouble in his countenance, he desired his Majesty to give him leave to Travel.
1668. Dryden, Dram. Poesy, Ess. (ed. Ker), I. 72. It is unnatural for any one in a gust of passion to speak long together.
1729. Butler, Serm. (1848), 34. Since such an action is utterly disproportionate to the nature of man, it is in the strictest and most proper sense unnatural.
1780. Mirror, No. 100. An unnatural violence done to the work of his favourite poet.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 533. What seemed to his associates to be his unnatural recklessness and audacity.
1850. T. S. Baynes, New Anal. Logical Forms, 13, note. Unnatural, indirect or irregular predication … was … that, to wit, in which the species was predicated of the genus.
b. sb. An unnatural thing or state.
1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor., III. § 20. No practice being able to naturalize such unnaturals or make a man rest content not to be himself.
