ppl. a. [UN-1 8. Cf. Sw. ostoppad in sense 2.]
1. Not stopped up or closed.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. x. (Bodl. MS.). Þe weies of þe brayne be vnstopped of þat humoure.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 216. Ȝif ȝoure pyt in his entrees be stylle opyn & vnstoppyd.
1513. Sir E. Howard, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. III. I. 149. He hath bored an C agore hoolis in her and left unstopte, that the water cam in.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 58. If also carelesnesse haue left a rift, or chincke vnstopped in thine aged wall.
a. 1608. Dee, Relat. Spir., I. (1659), 419. The hole which was not greater then the thickness of a brick unstopped.
1683. Boyle, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 636. I have kept the Bottle of prepar’d Water … in the same unstopt Vessel.
1758. Ann. Reg., Chron., 96/2. Suffocated … by the steam of 40 buts of unstopped beer.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 719. Gilding the unstopped parts with the proper amalgam.
1887. Field, 24 Dec., 952/2. Our fox ran within short distance of main earths in a wholly unstopped country.
† 2. Unstuffed. Obs.–1
1434. E. E. Wills (1882), 102. iij quisshonus of the same colour vn-stopped.
3. Not stopped or hindered.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., III. (1626), 60. So haue I seene an unstopt torrent glide With quiet waters. Ibid., XV. 319. He might, vnstopt, haue entred without feare: But I withstood.
1796. Ann. Reg., 168. Let the frequent wain, unstopp’d by rains, Clear the dry hayfield of its dusky piles!
1803. Edwin, I. x. 152. That Edwin is no more, the voice of rumour, unstopped by opposition, has long declared.
1816. J. Scott, Paris Revisit. (ed. 3), 20. We passed on with our trunks unopened and unstopped.
4. Phonetics. (See STOPPED ppl. a. 7.)
1874. H. Sweet, in Trans. Philol. Soc., 471. Relaxation: a) stopped consonants to unstopped:… b) unstopped to diphthongal vowel. Ibid. (1877), Handbk. Phonetics, 78, 79.
5. spec. Of verse-lines: Not ending with a stop.
1874. Furnivall, in Trans. New Shaks. Soc., I. 73. Shakspere’s often use of the unstopt line.
