(UN-1 12.)
1627. in Foster, Eng. Factories India (1909), III. 169. Any advantage possible to bee taken (by theire unpreparednes).
1640. Habington, Edw. IV., 77. There could bee no excuse but in the unpreparednesse of his mind.
1684. [see prec.].
a. 1716. Blackall, Wks. (1723), I. 250. Our Unpreparedness for the Duty will not excuse the Omission of it.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, VII. 416. They had, for … his unpreparedness for it [sc. his fate], but too much grounds for apprehension with regard to his future happiness.
1824. Bentham, Bk. Fallacies, Wks. 1843, II. 411/1. Supposing the unpreparedness real, the reasonable and practical inference is—say nothing.
1873. Spencer, Stud. Sociol., ix. (1877), 213. The French … suffered catastrophes from this and other kinds of unpreparedness.
