[UN-1 7. Cf. OFris. un-, onstedich, MLG. unstedich, MHG. unstætec (G. unstätig); MDu. onstadich, LG. unstadig; etc.]
1. Not steady in position; not firm or secure; not held or kept steady.
1598. Florio, Insollare, to make loose or vnsteadie.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 440. Some there bee, who … advise their patients to wash their unsteedie teeth with the said infusion.
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., I. 258. Walking to and fro on the vnsteddy legges of Dis-rest.
1703. De Foe, Hymn to the Pillory, viii. The Statesmen … Who guide us with unsteady hand.
1743. R. Blair, Grave, 205. The busto moulders, and the deep-cut marble, Unsteady to the steel, gives up its charge.
1800. Coleridge, Christabel, II. 590. Christabel in dizzy trance Stumbling on the unsteady ground.
1815. Scott, Guy M., li. He glanced at some passages of the letters with an unsteady eye and an agitated mind.
1867. Morris, Jason, VI. 238. On their quest [they] … began to plough The unsteady plain.
transf. 1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, v. Her voice was unsteady, and Glynn noticed that she was trembling.
2. Not steady or constant in respect of conduct or purpose; fluctuating, fickle, wavering.
1598. Dallington, Meth. Trav., X 2 b. Men of light and vnsteadie braines, haue commonly sudden and sharpe conceites.
16[?]. Middleton, etc., Old Law, V. i. Our unsteady fancies Would question whether we yet lived or no.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 49. So fluctuating and unsteady a testimony is the Applause of Popular Councils.
1677. Yarranton, Eng. Improv., a 3 b. I could not imagine which way what I lay down in my Book … should in this unsteady Age ever come to be put into Practice.
1712. Berkeley, Pass. Obed., Wks. 1871, III. 121. The violent humours and unsteady opposite wills of a multitude of savages.
a. 1770. Jortin, Serm. (1774), III. 16. The tyranny of evil habits, and the easy descent from an unsteddy virtue to those habits.
1819. Keats, Otho, I. i. You have intrigued with these unsteady times To admiration.
1849. Froude, Nemesis of Faith, 136. Unsteady minds began to grow uneasy.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust, II. I. v. 6. Let naught howe’er it sound make thee unsteady.
absol. 1828. Moir, Mansie Wauch, Prelim. The unsteady may take a hint concerning what it is possible for one of … a stout heart to go through with.
1872. [see UNSTEADY v.].
3. Marked or characterized by absence of steadiness or regularity; not regular, even, or uniform.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xiv. § 22. If the Motion of the Sun were as unequal as that of a Ship driven by unsteady Winds.
1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, II. li. The unsteady uses of words, which have perplexed the clearest and most exalted understandings.
1798. Southey, Henry the Hermit, 58. The lamp that stream’d a long unsteady light.
1821[?]. Bryant, Winter Piece, 4. When the unsteady pulse Beat with strange flutterings.
1862. A. Meadows, Man. Midwifery, 186. Unsteady gait; when the woman walks the chest is held back.
1884. Truth, 13 March, 372. The badness of the road is aggravated by unsteady driving, and a defective type of rolling stock.
