Unshorn

ppl. a. [UN-¹ 8 b. Cf. OE. unscoren, MDu. ongescoren (Du. -schoren), OHG. ungescoran (MHG. ungeschorn, G. -schoren), ON. úskorinn (Sw. oskuren, Da. uskaaren).]

  1.  Not shorn, cut, or cropped: a. Of cloth.

1464.  Rolls of Parlt., V. 564/2. [No person shall buy] eny Wolles than unshorn, or take promesse of bargayn of eny Wolles than unshoren.

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, b v. A dagon or pece of Rough blanket vnshoron.

1535–.  [see UNBARBED 1].

1597.  Shaks., Lover’s Compl., 94. His phenix downe began but to appeare Like vnshorne veluet.

1675.  Hobbes, Odyssey (1677), 232. He wore a purple vest, Unshorn, and lin’d.

1700.  Dryden, Flower & Leaf, 266. White Velvet, but unshorn, for Cloaks they wore.

1716.  Gay, Trivia, I. 47. True Witney broad-cloth, with its shag unshorn.

  b.  Of persons or animals, hair, etc.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., I. xx. 118. The heer of wommennys heed vnschorn.

1565.  Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Intonsus, Sheepe vnshorne.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., 138. Bye not your Sheepe but washed and vnshorne.

1596.  W. Smith, Chloris, xlviii. Those curled locks which thou wast wont to twist, Vnkempt, vnshorne, and out of order beene.

1628.  Milton, Vac. Exerc., 37. Listening to what unshorn Apollo sings.

1693.  Dryden, trans. Ovid’s Met., I. 766. As the Locks of Phœbus are unshorn.

1820.  Keats, Eve St. Agnes, viii. All amort, Save to St. Agnes and her lambs unshorn.

1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxxix. The caresses of the old gentleman, unshorn and perfumed with tobacco.

  e.  Of corn, fields, etc.

1573.  Tusser, Husb. (1878), 105. Some mowe vp their hedlonds and plots among corne, and driuen to leaue nothing, vnmowne, or vnshorne.

1601.  Campion, Wks. (1909), 21. A Meadow yet vnshorne.

1631.  Quarles, Samson, Wks. (Grosart), II. 155/2. His rip’ned Corne: Whereof, some part … stood unshorne.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Past., V. 98. The mountain-tops unshorn, the rocks, rejoice.

1757.  Akenside, Pleas. Imag., I. 316. The pathless woods unshorn That wave o’er huge Olympus.

1810.  Scott, Lady of L., I. xxvi. Of mountain fir, with bark unshorn.

a. 1850.  Bryant, Prairies, 2. These are … The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful.

1873.  Symonds, Grk. Poets, vii. 222. This garland … Of wilding flowers plucked from an unshorn meadow.

  2.  fig. Not reduced or diminished; not deprived of something.

1818.  Byron, Ch. Har., IV. lxxii. An Iris sits … and … bears serene Its brilliant hues with all their beams unshorn.

1818.  Keats, ‘There is a charm,’ 12. One who was great through mortal days, and died of fame unshorn.

1821–2.  Shelley, Chas. I., II. 142. To his God Alone he must deliver up his trust, Unshorn of its permitted attributes.