† 1. Lack of culture or refinement. Obs.
1702. Echard, Eccl. Hist., 20. People of great Courage … and of no less Plainess and Unpoliteness.
1728. Morgan, Algiers, I. iii. 49. A People so prone to Unpoliteness as were the natural Africans.
2. Want of politeness.
1707. Refl. upon Ridicule (1717), I. 28. Unpoliteness is a Vice that gives the World a Right to complain of us.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), III. 187. I have just carried unpoliteness far enough to make her afraid of me.
1858. Carlyle, in Froude, Life in London (1884), II. 197. The shocking unpoliteness of breaking an express promise.
1880. Athenæum, 5 June, 725. Their own unpoliteness and ill temper.
† 3. Inelegance. Obs.
1725. Blackwall, Sacr. Class. (1727), I. 80. Sad outcries are made of the unpoliteness of the style.
