a. [UN-1 7.]
1. Unnecessary; not required.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., II. 58. So shal cloþis be more unnedeful þan þei weren in staat of innocence.
c. 1450. Myrr. our Ladye, 227. Her eyne … were neuer lyfte vp to beholde eny vnnedeful thinge.
1543. Recorde, Arithm., 119 b. I iudge that good reason, for many are vnnedefull, where one wyll serue.
1597. J. King, On Jonas (1618), 281. The matter of all their vowes vnneedefull, in some vnlawfull, in some vnpossible.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, I. 2 Which vnneedfull Southerly course … occasioned them … much sicknesse.
1677. Lond. Gaz., No. 1170/3. Since your Majesty will see what I write … it is unneedful that I should repeat it.
1768. [W. Donaldson], Life Sir B. Sapskull, I. iii. 29. Mere negative qualifications totally unneedful in the education of a polite gentleman.
1905. Athenæum, 30 Sept., 431/1. The editor has … also (a rarer thing in editors) refrained from doing what was unneedful.
2. Not standing in need of something.
1876. Mrs. H. Wood, Parkwater (1879), 258. The heart has a language of its own, unneedful of common syllables.
So Unneedfully adv., unnecessarily.
1642. Milton, Apol. Smect., 2. Yet those I intreat who have found the leasure to reade that name,… unworthily defam’d, would be so good … as to heare the same person not unneedfully defended.
