[UN-1 12.]
1. The quality of being physically or materially unsound. Also fig.
1599. Sandys, Europæ Spec. (1605), V 2 b. The bond of common feare, is the strongest indeed of all other,… and the daunger once past falles in sunder of his owne vnsoundnesse.
1614. Latham, Falconry, II. i. 79. When through our disorder … we haue wrought their [sc. hawks’] vnsoundnes, we forget to looke backe.
1763. Mills, Pract. Husb., III. 449. If these [livers] were livid or corrupted, they offered others, as the unsoundness of the first might be owing to some casual distemper.
1820. Starkie, Rep. Cases N. P., II. 81. If a horse be affected by any malady which renders him less serviceable for a permanency, I have no doubt that it is an unsoundness.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. xix. 333. The unsoundness of ice at and near its melting point.
1880. Encycl. Brit., XII. 189/2. A pimple on the body where the saddle would cover it is an unsoundness in a hunter while it lasts. Ibid. A temporary cough is also an unsoundness.
b. Unwholesomeness.
1660. F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 370. A Colony … displanted for the unsoundnesse of the ayre.
2. The quality of being unsound in belief, opinion, principles, etc.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxii. § 6. By reason of vnsoundnes in the highest articles of Christian faith.
1641. Milton, Animadv., 20. They need not carry such an unworthy suspicion over the Preachers of Gods word, as to tutor their unsoundnesse with the Abcie of a Liturgy.
1680. S. Mather, Iren., 3. Fundamental unsoundness and Corruption of Judgment.
1769. J. Gill, Body Pract. Divinity, II. ii. 302. They … agree to differ … and not charge one another with unsoundness and heterodoxy.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., II. xvii. 259. It was not uncommon formerly to suspect every one who professed to pursue the light of nature, of unsoundness of principles.
1841. [Mrs. Mozley], Lost Brooch, II. 71. Every sermon of his betrays his unsoundness.
1877. Smith & Wace’s Dict. Chr. Biog., I. 11/2. The breach was widened by mutual accusations of unsoundness in the faith.
b. Of doctrine, principles, etc.
1586. Hooker, Answ. Travers, § 6. Any thing that shalbe spoken concerning the vnsoundnes of my Doctrine.
1607. Stat., in Hist. Wakefield Gram. Sch. (1892), 61. The unsoundnes of his or theire religion.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 507, ¶ 6. The Unsoundness of this Principle … is … universally acknowledged.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, I. 551. The unsoundness of the conclusion … might inspire a reasonable distrust of the correctness of the persuasions.
1881. Westcott & Hort, Grk. Test., Introd. § 93. The presumed unsoundness of the text.
3. The quality of being mentally unsound.
1825. Macaulay, Ess., Milton, ¶ 14. Perhaps no person can be a poet … without a certain unsoundness of mind.
1856. J. W. H. Williams (title), On Unsoundness of Mind, in its medical and legal considerations.
1884. Law Rep., 27 Ch. Div. 119. The soundness or unsoundness of mind of the alleged lunatic.
