v. [UN-2 4 b, 6 b.]
1. trans. To annul (a sin) by subsequent action.
1628. Feltham, Resolves, II. lxxxix. 257. When a sinne is past, griefe may lessen it, but not vnsinne it.
1670. Clarendon, Contempl. Ps., Tracts (1727), 593. They who … observe the other injunction of the prophet … have unsinned their former sins.
1705. J. Dunton, Life & Errors, 405. I can’t Un-Sin the Errours of my past Life.
1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., IV. 285. The proper process of unsinning sin Is to begin well-doing somehow else.
2. To free (a person) from being a sinner.
c. 1629. Donne, Serm. (1640), 645. Expeccabis; and if in our language, that were a word in use, it might be translated, ‘Thou shalt un-sin me,’ that is, look upon me as a man that had never sinned.
3. To maintain or prove to be no sin; to divest of the character of a sin.
1682. Southerne, Loyal Brother, V. i. Gifted Rogues, That … zealously, upon a fit of Conscience, Sin or Unsin Rebellion to the Croud.
a. 1715. South, Serm., IV. 123. He who defends it [sc. a sin], utterly denies its Guilt, and (as I may so speak) absolutely unsins it.
