[UN-1 12.] The quality of being unskilful; inexpertness, † ignorance.
c. 1410. Lanterne Liȝt, 115. God forbediþ þe vnleful takyng of oþir mennes goodis & so … refreyneþ þe vnskilfulnes of mannes dede.
1544. Betham, Precepts War, I. ccii. Theyr vnskylfulnesse is the great destruction of the whole hoste, when they knowe not howe for to kepe theyr arraye.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., ¶ iiij. In consideration of the gatherers vnskilfulnesse.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 399. They double their numbers at foure, as we doe at ten, through vnskilfulnesse in numbring.
1691. Hartcliffe, Virtues, 231. Hence we are obliged not to impose upon any Man’s ignorance or unskilfulness.
1748. Anson’s Voyage, II. x. 242. The indolence and unskilfulness of the Spanish sailors.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., vi. (1782), I. 193. The siege … was protracted to the tenth year … by the unskilfulness of the besiegers.
1828. Lytton, Pelham, III. xi. Tyrrell, who believed he should readily recruit himself by my unskilfulness in the game, fell easily into the snare.
1869. Dk. Argyle, Primeval Man, III. 100. This … may be due to the unskilfulness of early art.
