a. Also 6–7 unstaied, -stayed, etc. [UN-1 7.]
1. Of persons: Not staid or regulated in deportment or conduct.
c. 1550. Cheke, Matt. xxiii. 25. Thei be called in greek ἀκρατεῖς,… which we mai cal rightli vnstaid.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. ii. II. iii. 567. When they are so new fangled, so vnstaide, so prodigious in their attires.
1636. Heywood, Love’s Mistr., V. L 4. Now Psiche, you must see your sisters judg’d, Vnstaid Petrea, and unkind Astioche.
transf. 1591. Shaks., Two Gent., II. vii. 60. How will the world repute me For vndertaking so vnstaid a iourney?
† b. Of a hawk: Not properly trained. Obs.–1
1614. Latham, Falconry, I. v. 21. With the first of these three orders, I haue reclaimed an outragious vnstaied hawke.
2. Of the mind, etc.: Not subjected to restraint or control; unrestrained, unregulated.
(a) 1579. E. K., Ded. to Spenser’s Sheph. Cal., § 5. His vnstayed yougth had long wandred in the common Labyrinth of Loue.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., II. i. 2. Will the King come, that I may breath my last In wholsome counsell to his vnstaid youth?
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 158. All those vaine delights which vnstaied youth most desireth.
(b) 1587. Holinshed, Chron., III. 488/1. To lash out whatsoeuer his vnstaied mind affoorded.
1605. Rowlands, Hell’s Broke Loose (Hunterian Club), 23. The easier to beguile The simple sort, which haue vnstayed mindes.
a. 1678. H. Scougal, Disc. Imp. Subj. (1735), 136. Our blood is hot, and our spirits unstayed and giddy.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., 1 Tim. iii. 11. Women … in danger of unstayed Levity.
1812. Cary, Dante, Purg., X. 112. O poor and wretched ones! That … lean your trust Upon unstaid perverseness.
1832. L. Hunt, Sir R. Esher, i. 38. Unripe and unstaid thoughts, the vanities of youth.
1840. Lowell, The Moon, 5. My soul was like the sea,… Moaning in vague immensity,… Unrestful and unstaid.
(c) 1592. Lyly, Gallathea, III. i. I feele my thoughts vnknit, mine eyes vnstaied.
1638. Brathwait, Spirit. Spicery, etc., 398. Those poore objects wherewith my unstayed eyes were fed.
(d) 1590. Spenser, Muiopot., 161. To the gay gardins his vnstaid desire Him wholly caried, to refresh his sprights.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., xi. 348. Ethelbald … by the wise reproofe of godly Bishops brought From those vnstay’d delights by which his youth was caught.
3. Not settled or stable in opinion or resolve; not clearly determined or decided.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., I. 5. That vnstayed and wandring opinion of the maiestie of God.
1603. Harsnet, Pop. Impost., 121. If they had brought the old renowmed Reliques from Rome, some unstayed body would haue made question whether they had been Saints bones indeed.
1613. Bp. Hall, Serm., v. 93. A private man unsettled in opinion, is … troublesome and useless: but a public person unstayed is dangerous.
1631. Weever, Anc. Funeral Mon., 515. King Henry,… vnstayed in religious resolutions, did cut them off vpon false suggestions.
a. 1750. A. Hill, Muse to Writer, viii. While roving thus, uncenter’d and unstaid, I lik’d by turns, and did by turns refuse.
4. Liable to change or alter; uncertain.
1586. Day, Eng. Secretary, I. (1595), 116. Is there anie thing on earth so assured, that by vnstaied incertaintie is not continuallie guided?
1628. Feltham, Resolves, II. xlvi. 135. Change is the great Lord of the World; Time is his Agent, that brings in all things to suffer his vnstaid Dominion.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, III. iii. 15. They frisque about in circulings unstay’d.
Hence Unstaidly adv.
1556. Grimalde, Cicero’s Offices, III. 123. Nothing … vniustly, nothing wantonly, nothing vnstayedly is meete to be done.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. xxxvii. 9. If wee were not shifted hither and thither unstayedly.
1611. Cotgr., Incontinemment,… disorderedly, vnstayedly, immoderately.
