1. Of things: Not having an official character or stamp.
1798. Monthly Rev., XXVI. 51. Impertinent and unofficial as it seems, it may have been intended to intimate [etc.].
1866. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, Introd. 3. His sheep-dog following with a heedless unofficial air as of a beadle in undress.
1884. Huxley, in Life (1900), II. 80. I wrote to Evans an unofficial letter.
2. Of persons: Not holding an official position; not acting in an official capacity.
1829. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 124. Unofficial philosophers must be content to classify appearances as they rise.
1869. J. Martineau, Ess., II. 97. The theories of these unofficial masters of philosophy.
b. sb. One who is not an official.
1887. Pall Mall G., 29 July, 4/1. We have a letter this morning from St. Petersburg, the writer of which is a leader among the ‘unofficials.’
