ppl. a. [UN-1 8.]
1. Not occupied or engaged in some work or pursuit; idle.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 191. First men ordeyned … to putte awey ydelnesse & to be not vnoccupied in goode manere for þe tyme.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 23. Þou þat syttest stylle here in cherch, vnocupyed & thynkest on þi muk.
c. 1490. Caxton, Rule St. Benet, 132. Lete theym be assigned to other occupacyons to doo, so that they be neuer vnoccupied in vertu.
c. 1529. Capon, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. I. I. 190. So that your workemen shall not be unoccupyed for wante of stone.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 137. A valiente mynde can not rest in one place or bee vnoccupyed.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 118. Prouide of thine owne to haue all things at hand, least worke and the workman vnoccupide stand.
1647. Hexham, I. Vnoccupied, or doing nothing, onbesich.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 141, ¶ 2. Acting when his imagination was unoccupied, and his judgment unsettled.
1780. Burke, Œcon. Reform, Wks. III. 324. The council, or committees of council, were never a moment unoccupied, with affairs of trade.
1827. Lytton, Falkland, 36. I am unoccupied by a single pursuit.
1898. ‘Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, xvii. She led a blameless, unoccupied, and apparently purposeless life.
2. Not put to use; left unemployed. (In later use only of time.)
1448–9. Metham, Amoryus & Cl., 2210. Tyme on-ocupyid, qwan folk haue lytyl to do.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, B vj. Tho saame lewnes þou shalt fastyn slackely as a bowstryng vnocupyede.
1523. [Coverdale], Old God (1534), B j. The sword … beynge through dust & longe beynge unoccupied,… defiled with ruste.
1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer, IV. (1577), T v. They … fell into decay and loste theyr puissaunce and brightnesse, lyke yron vnoccupied.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, V. 354. Her time … hung not upon her unoccupied.
1829. Scott, Anne of G., xxv. As if desirous that the hour should arrive which would put an end to a day unoccupied.
3. Of ground, etc.: Not occupied by inhabitants or indwellers; not pat to use in this way; not frequented or filled up; empty.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., IV. xix. 1780. Thare wes vnoccupiit … A land beȝond ane arme of the se.
1560. Bible, Judges, v. 6. The hye wayes were vnoccupied, and the trauelers walked through bywayes.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 15. No dwellers, what profiteth house for to stand? What goodnes, vnoccupied, bringeth the land?
1691. Ray, Creation, I. (1692), 189. Doubtless, if we shall discover further to the very North-pole, we shall find all that Tract not to be vain, useless, or unoccupied.
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 557. The word That, finding an interminable space Unoccupied, has fill’d the void so well.
1807. Europ. Mag., LII. 111/1. This part of Lancashire is … highly cultivated, not an inch of ground lies waste and unoccupied.
1884. in A. Cawston, Street Improv. London (1893), 115. There are always a very large number of unoccupied houses even in towns where the building trade is very active.
b. Not taken up or appropriated.
1701. Grew, Cosmol., II. iii. 43. The Phancy hath full Power to create them in the Sensories themselves, then unoccupy’d by External Impressions.
1830. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. IV. 107. She could not have chosen an occupation more completely unoccupied, or more loudly called for.
1832. Westm. Rev., Oct., 353. Cadences … highly favourable for leaving the ear unoccupied for any measure which may follow.
