1. trans. To undo from a fixed position; to unfix, unfasten, loosen.
1598. Florio, Discasciare,… to make loose the teeth, to dismount artillerie, to vnsettle anything.
[1755. Johnson, To Unsettle, v. a., to move from a place.]
1818. Keats, Endymion, IV. 414. He … strives in vain to unsettle and wield A Jovian thunderbolt.
2. To force out of a settled condition; to deprive of fixity or quiet: a. a state of things, institutions, etc.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxvii. 154. Such as … take upon them … to unsettle the Lawes with their publique discourse.
1679. Alsop, Melius Inq., I. i. 91. To set Religion upon its proper Basis, and unsettle it from the feeble foundations upon which former Ages had erected it!
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 21 April, 1695. Never were so many private Bills pass’d for unsettling estates.
1704. Atterbury, On 1 Tim. ii. 7. Those Mighty Events, that fix, or unsettle the Peace of the World.
1803. Wordsw., ‘England! the time is come,’ 4. Old things have been unsettled.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., i. I. 71. This theory, though intended to strengthen the foundations of government, altogether unsettles them.
1884. Leeds Merc., 15 Nov., 6/4. Such a struggle … must unsettle all the institutions of the country.
b. beliefs, thoughts, the mind, etc.
1644. Milton, Divorce (ed. 2), I. viii. 19. They should but seek … to unsettle our constancie with timorous and softning suggestions.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., III. i. § 2. When men bent their wits to unsettle the Beleef of such things as tended to Religion.
1671. in Verney Mem. (1907), II. 354. My thoughts are unsettled.
1759. Sarah Fielding, C’tess of Dellwyn, II. 261. His Father had unsettled his Resolution.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xlvii. The long struggle which Agnes suffered … at length unsettled her reason.
1816. Scott, Bl. Dwarf, xviii. The shock was even sufficient to unsettle his wits.
1839. Dickens, Nickleby, iv. None of those ill-judged comings home twice a year that unsettle children’s minds so.
1885. Spectator, 25 July, 971/2. That his mind had been unsettled by his peril.
c. persons (in respect of beliefs, etc.).
1833. Coleridge, Table Talk (1884), 225. What is the spirit which seems to move and unsettle every other man … at this time?
1851. Helps, Comp. Solit., xii. 236. Provided they do not, as they would say, unsettle their neighbours.
1880. R. G. White, Every-Day Eng., 140. A phonetic printing of those two words would unsettle all these people.
3. intr. To become unsettled.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. iv. 167. His wits begin t’ vnsettle.
1624. Sanderson, Serm., I. 102. The house cannot but unsettle apace, and without speedy repairs fall to the ground.
1543. Milton, Divorce, 8. Their wild affections unsetling at will have been as so many divorces to teach them experience.
a. 1859. De Quincey, Posth. Wks. (1891), I. 14. He gazes, and slowly under the blazing scenery of his brain the scenery of his eye unsettles.
4. trans. To clear of settlers.
1895. Advance (Chicago), 11 April, 991/1. Probably no [other] section of our country has ever been un-settled so rapidly.
Hence Unsettling vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
Also, in recent use (1901), unsettler.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., I. vii. Troublesome and unsettling Employments.
1775. Ash, Disconcerting, p. a.,… unsettling, discomposing.
1828. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. III. 70. The unsettling, and the journey, and the settling again,… fairly killed her.
1849. Lytton, Caxtons, II. 306. But all such love, as I have before implied, is a terrible unsettler:—
| ‘Where once such fairies dance, no grass ever grow.’ |
1866. Cornh. Mag., XIII. 437. Christianity … must have raised among the believers in the Law very unsettling questions much akin to these.
1894. H. Gardener, Unoff. Patriot, 10. The unsettling times which brought Methodism … into the ranks of established things.
