Unsafe

a. [UN-¹ 7.]

  1.  Not enjoying safety; exposed to danger or risk.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., III. ii. 32. Vnsafe the while, that wee must laue Our Honors in these flattering streames.

a. 1618.  Raleigh, Rem. (1664), 151. People that were … un-safe, or unsure for their lives.

1676.  Hale, Contempl., I. 277. Which makes the man’s estate unquiet and unsafe, because he hath many competitors.

1892.  Tennyson, Foresters, IV. i. I have let them know Their lives unsafe in … our woods.

  2.  Of actions, etc.: Involving, or not free from, danger or risk.

1597.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. xlii. § 2. Yet others should be taught how unsafe it was to continue his friends.

1604.  Shaks., Oth., V. i. 43. Let’s think’t vnsafe To come into the cry. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., II. ii. 30. These dangerous, unsafe Lunes i’ th’ King.

1662.  J. Davies, trans. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 84. This great number of slaves make it unsafe to walk the streets … unarm’d.

1722.  Wodrow, Corr. (1843), II. 665. Our Assembly … declared the unsafe tendency of several propositions advanced by them.

1798.  S. & Ht. Lee, Canterb. T., II. 168. [He] thought its appearance so unsafe, that … he chose to mount a horse.

1836.  Thirlwall, Greece, xxii. III. 259. A small number whom it appeared unsafe to trust.

1864.  E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene, 427. Rain water may be unsafe, if the tanks are not clean.

  b.  Of ways or places: Dangerous from natural or other causes.

1621.  in Foster, Eng. Factories Ind. (1906), I. 274. The tyme of winter had made the wayes unsafe.

1650.  in Verney Memoirs (1907), I. 464. The wayes are everywhere unsafe for travell.

1686.  Horneck, Crucif. Jesus, xxii. 661. Where the roads are unsafe, there men carry swords.

1748.  Anson’s Voy., III. ii. 315. Full of sharp-pointed coral rocks, which … renders it a very unsafe place to lie at.

1781.  Cowper, Heroism, 33. Oh, bliss precarious, and unsafe retreats!

1830.  Wordsw., Russian Fugitive, II. ii. And midway in the unsafe morass, A single Island rose Of firm dry ground.

1891.  Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xx. While Nero … made the streets … unsafe with riot and assault.

  3.  Not to be trusted to; unreliable.

1601.  Shaks., Twel. N., III. iv. 88. No obstacle, no incredulous or vnsafe circumstance,… can come betweene me, and the full prospect of my hopes.

1615.  G. Sandys, Trav., 92. A number of wracks … did miserably testifie the unsafe protection of that harbour.

1660.  Jer. Taylor, Ductor, II. iii. rule 14 § 2. The topick of traditions … was … false in many things, and therefore unsafe in all questions.

1815.  J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 635. Land … on which it is deemed unsafe to sow grain, on account of the worm.

1863.  Smith’s Dict. Bible, II. s.v. Phut, Such mere similarity of sound is a most unsafe guide.

1894.  A. Robertson, Nuggets, 34. We say ‘As unsafe as a bank,’ after what has occurred in Melbourne.