adv. Obs. [UN-1 11, 5 b.] Improperly. (Freq. c. 1560–c. 1650.)
a. In respect of the use of words.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 8129. Ffor if endlesnes any end moght hald, Þan war it endlesnes unproperly cald.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxxii. (Bodl. MS.). It is vnpropirliche seide þat oþer bestes haue backes.
a. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 55. Þai ar called emeroydez, bot neþerlez vnproperly.
a. 1470. H. Parker, Dives & Pauper (W. de W., 1496), I. xiii. 45/2. They take that Dulia full largely, and full unproprely.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 93. Long talke, and small matter, are spoken vnproperly, for we cannot measure either talke or matter by length or breadth.
1579. Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 100. This worde sacrifice, is either taken properly, or vnproperly, and figuratiuely.
1636. M. Walbancke in Ann. Dubrensia (1877), 3. You to whom I may not unpropperly give the denomination of an Hero.
1678. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., v. 95. They … say … ‘Lay a kerf in that piece of Stuff’; and sometimes, (but most unproperly,) ‘Cut, or Slit that piece of Stuff.’
b. In other contexts.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., II. 153. Those thinges yt were done in his nature of man, are vnproperly, & yet not without reason, geuen to hys Godhed.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades, 463. Iustification is somtimes somewhat vnproperly attributed to workes.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, I. viii. 41. A part of the hill Taurus (unproperly ascribed to Caucasus).
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, ii. ¶ 2. They commonly, but unproperly, imploy Joyners to make them.
