1. Of things: Not capable of being employed for their proper purpose.
1535. Wardr. Kath. Arragon, 33, in Camden Misc., III. The thurde [chair] is broken and unservesable.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. xi. 25. The beast … his late wounded wing vnseruiceable found.
1600. in St. Papers, Dom. (1869), 437. The others [= signets] having become unserviceable from long use.
1663. Boyle, Usef. Exp. Nat. Philos., II. App. 328. Besides a not despicable quantity of terrestrial and unserviceable matter.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., III. iii. § 17. The supposition … is so … unserviceable to any part of our knowledge.
1713. Berkeley, Guard., No. 35. His intellectuals, I observed, were grown unserviceable by too little use.
1737. trans. Le Comte’s Mem. & Remarks China, Pref. They might not be unserviceable to those who might … take up such a design.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Aug., 339. The horse I hire … may be in any degree serviceable or unserviceable.
1830. H. N. Coleridge, Grk. Poets, 1. A perusal of these Introductions may not be unserviceable to many well educated readers.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, I. xxxii. What with her flapping cap, and … her unserviceable eye.
b. spec. Of ships, guns, etc.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., 35. The ships … so shaken with the tempest, that they became altogether unserviceable.
1618. in Essex Rev. (1908), XVII. 102. The moderne use doth altogether exclude the caliver as unservicable.
1707. Lond. Gaz., No. 4362/2. 10 Ships were destroyed…, and several others rendred wholly unserviceable.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. iv. 165. Three four pounders, which were altogether unserviceable.
1811. Regul. & Orders Army, 91. The disposal of Unserviceable Arms.
1865. Cameron, Malayan India, 246. It is not that the forts are ungarrisoned,… but that they are unserviceable.
1876. Voyle & Stevenson, Milit. Dict., 446/2. Unserviceable, the term is applied … to all stores which are no longer of use, being either obsolete or worn out.
2. Of persons: Unable to be of service; not rendering service or help; useless.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 240. You haue too much liuing, and are vnseruiceable to your prince, lesse will serue you.
1614. W. B., Philosophers Banquet (ed. 2), 121. One that would be vnseruiceable to him, and vnprofitable to the Commonwealth.
1655. Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 217. I did long since tell you that poore man would be made onseruiceable to you.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. i. 13. Our sick are about the same;… McGary and Riley unserviceable.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., III. ii. I am an unserviceable friend of hers.
b. spec. Not capable of rendering military (or naval) service.
1596. Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (Globe), 653/2. The rebells … will turne away all theyr rascall people, whom they thinke unserviceable.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, IV. iii. 152. Fiue or sixe thousand, but very weake and vnseruiceable: the troopes are all scattered.
1681. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), I. 151. Poor souldiers rendred unserviceable by age, wounds, &c.
1786. Burke, Art. agst. W. Hastings, Wks. 1842, II. 191. The country troops … would be ill-disciplined and unserviceable, if not worse.
1834. Marryat, P. Simple, I. 124. Some of them were retained, but most of them sent on shore as unserviceable.
1881. Jowett, Thucyd., I. 146. The Plataeans had already conveyed to Athens their wives,… with the rest of their unserviceable population.
transf. 1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 707. Unserviceable ticket; this is made out in the same manner, and requires the same notations, as a sick-ticket.
3. Marked by disinclination to be of service.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, V. vi. 657. Such men of note … as had any way discouered an vnseruiceable disposition towards the Romans.
4. Prejudicial, disadvantageous.
1698. Norris, Pract. Disc., IV. 386. To reform his Temper, which I’m afraid is more unserviceable to Religion than any Hypothesis of mine can be.
Hence Unserviceability.
1884. Cyclists’ Tour. Cl. Gaz., Nov., 335/1. The unserviceability of the new substitute.
