1. Not satisfied in respect of something desired; not having obtained all that, or as much as, is wished for: a. Predicatively, also const. with, † of.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 31. Thou tolde me, frende,… That thou kneuhest one … Unsatisfied a day in tymes twelfe.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. xviii. (1912), 457. So the more they strake, the more unsatisfied they were with striking.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. ii. 125. Rom. O wilt thou leaue me so vnsatisfied? Iuli. What satisfaction can’st thou haue to night?
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lx. § 7. That the Church … should repell them and see them dye vnsatisfied of these their Ghostly Desires.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., IV. ii. 55. Though he were vnsatisfied in getting,… yet in bestowing … He was most Princely.
1685. Dryden, Lucretius, III. 155. Unsatisfy’d with all that Nature brings; Loathing the present, liking absent things.
1758–63. Gibbon, Misc. Wks. (1814), III. 41. His ambition was yet unsatisfied.
1808. Mitford, Hist. Greece, IV. 457. They were unsatisfied with the composition of the appointed embassy.
1866. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, i. To feel a woman’s hunger of the heart for ever unsatisfied.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 52. A warning to others of the dangers of being unsatisfied.
b. Attributively.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., I. vi. 49. The Cloyed will: That satiate yet vnsatisfi’d desire.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low C. Wars, 279. Casting their unsatisfied eyes upon his countenance, they gratefully reverenced that tender Age.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Sat. agst. Woman, Wks. 1730, I. 57. Raging with unsatisfy’d desire.
1757. Foote, Author, I. You know the unsatisfied mind of man, no sooner is one object possessed, but another starts up.
1849. Grote, Greece, II. I. VI. 355. Bitter and as yet unsatisfied hatred against Platæa.
1871. Morley, Carlyle, in Crit. Misc., Ser. I. (1878), 168. The deep unrest of unsatisfied souls.
2. Not satisfied in respect of information or knowledge; doubtful, dubious.
1575. Churchyard, Chippes, 38 b. At whoes elloquence the heerars rather stoede astonyed than vnsatysfyed in any poynt or parssell.
1602. Shaks., Ham., V. ii. 351. Report me and my causes right To the vnsatisfied.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 187. In submission to future information, we are unsatisfied unto great dubitation.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., IX. ii. § 25. Others were unsatisfied in the Authenticalness of the instrument, who never did … see the original.
1736. Butler, Anal., II. viii. 384. It will yet leave the mind in a very unsatisfied state.
† b. Not certain of something. Obs.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low C. Wars, 593. They mistrusted their Borders, and were unsatisfied of their more inward Garrisons.
3. Not satisfied with some circumstance, result, etc.; dissatisfied, displeased.
Common in latter half of the 17th cent; now rare.
a. 1648. Ld. Herbert, Hen. VIII. (1683), 526. Both Princes remained unsatisfied of the others actions.
1652. J. Wright, trans. Camus’ Nat. Paradox, X. 253. Miestas [was] very unsatisfied with his Son’s deportments.
1669. Temple, Lett. to Trevor, Wks. 1720, II. 202. He seemed a good deal unsatisfied that the Spanish Ambassador had received the Advice from England.
1731. Gentl. Mag., I. 436. Fortune … declar’d that whoever was unsatisfied with their Lot should complain to her.
1795. V. Knox, Chr. Phil., vi. I. 57. When he is observed, he is ashamed; and when he has done, he is unsatisfied.
1883. American, VI. 250. Mr. Freeman is … unsatisfied with the review.
† b. Not satisfied by being paid. Obs.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 130. The short, and long is now no sight so unpleasant as their unsatisfied Doctor.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, IX. viii. V. 174. If they [sc. gamesters] were left unsatisfied, the credit of the young man would fall a sacrifice of their ill treatment.
4. Not settled by payment, etc.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., II. i. 139. If then … your father will restore But that one halfe which is vnsatisfied, We will giue vp our right in Aquitaine.
1632. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 483. Howe the same debt was paid … and what is yet behinde and unsatisfied.
1682. Scarlett, Exchanges, 114. Upon pain of forfeiture of twenty five Guilders, and the Bill to be accounted unsatisfied.
1763. Act 4 Geo. III., c. i. 29. The Monies so remaining unsatisfied, or not discharged.
1879. F. Hitchman, Publ. Life Beaconsfield, I. 182. He was deeply in debt, and had a number of unsatisfied judgments out against him.
Hence Unsatisfiedly adv.
1661. Boyle, Style of Script., 172. Some of them,… after having Unsatisfiedly Travell’d thorough all sorts of Human Volumes, have Rested … only in these Divine Ones.
