1641. Milton, Reform., II. 48. For if the life of Christ be hid to this world, much more is his Scepter unoperative, but in spirituall things.
1685. South, Serm. (1727), I. 389. It … imports no more than an idle unoperative … desire of the end, without any consideration of … the means.
1756. Burke, Subl. & B., IV. xxiv. There lie the qualities of beauty either dead or unoperative. Ibid. (1783), Rep. Ind. Com., Wks. II. 22. By which measure this provision of the Act has proved as unoperative as all the rest.
1818. Bentham, Ch. Eng., Catech. Exam., 248. Mere unoperative existence.
