Unproved

ppl. a. [UN-¹ 8.]

  † 1.  Not put to proof or trial; untried. Obs.

c. 1440.  Pallad. on Husb., I. 236. Preue eek thonpreued greyne afore eschaunge.

c. 1445.  Pecock, Donet, 7. Y wote weel þat … scant ynouȝ oon leef schulde stonde vnprovid or colowrabily vnrebukid.

1550.  Baldwin, Mor. Philos., K iiij. Proue not thy frende wyth dammage, nor vse thou hym vnproued.

1561.  B. Googe, Palingenius’ Zodiac Life, I. A ij b. Willing to trede vnproued pathes that haue not yet ben gon.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. vii. 47. For to find a fresh vnproued knight.

  2.  Not demonstrated to be true or genuine.

1532.  More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 609/2. Both is his purpose on his part vnproued, & the contrarye to hym proued.

1533.  Frith, Answ. More, G 8. His mastership hathe lefte one thinge vnproued.

1628.  Donne, Serm. (1640), 291. The proofe lies on their side; and it rests yet unproved.

1693.  Dryden, Juvenal, VI. 313. Prov’d, or unprov’d, the Crime, the Villain dies.

1843.  J. H. Newman, Miracles, 63. A fact is not disproved, because the testimony is … insufficient, it is only unproved.

1866.  Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, xvii. The essence of bribery is that it should be legally proved; there is not such a thing … as unproved bribery.

1874.  Mahaffy, Social Life Greece, 335. However unproved or doubtful this ancient creed.

  Hence Unprovedness.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 1019. For barnes in þar bignes it baldis þam mekill, Oft with vnprouednes in presse to pas out of lyfe.