1. Having no real basis or foundation in fact.
c. 1455. Pecock, Folewer, 119. Þe dyuersite … was not but in wordis oonli and in fame of þe peple wiþout þe trouþ, which ful oft is founde ful vntrewe, vnsubstancial and perilose.
1715. Rowe, Lady Jane Gray, IV. 48. The vain Dream Of Empire, and a Crown,… With all those unsubstantial empty Forms.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xiii. I. 399. These deep but unsubstantial meditations.
1810. Southey, Kehama, VII. xi. Nor build on unsubstantial hope thy trust.
1833–4. J. Phillips, Geol., in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VI. 688/2. Every new, fanciful, and unsubstantial theory.
1883. Sir H. Cotton, in Law Rep., 11 Q. B. Div. 532. If the counter-claim is frivolous and unsubstantial.
2. Having no bodily or material substance.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., V. iii. 103. Shall I beleeue that vnsubstantiall death is amorous? Ibid. (1605), Lear, IV. i. 7. Welcome then, Thou vnsubstantiall ayre that I embrace.
1671. Milton, P. R., IV. 399. Darkness … brought in lowring night Her shadowy off-spring, unsubstantial both.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., IV. 118. What lengths of far-fam’d ages … roll along In unsubstantial images of air!
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., III. xxix. 198. Time and space, which in themselves are unsubstantial, inanimate, and destitute of intelligence.
1827. Pollok, Course T., III. 412. Of all the phantoms,… Most unsubstantial, unessential shade, Was earthly Fame.
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur., ii. 82. Hill and plain, apparently unsubstantial as a mountain mist.
1885. R. Bridges, Eros & Psyche, I. vi. To man’s purer unsubstantial part The brightness of her presence was addressed.
b. Lacking in substance or solidity. Also Comb.
1617. Hieron, Wks., II. xxvi. 363. If you shall pill it [sc. a rush], what is vnder it but a kind of spongious, vnsubstantiall substance…?
1773. Cook’s Voy., III. xi. III. 690. They taste not unlike a green cocoa-nut, and, like them, probably they yield a nutriment that is watry and unsubstantial.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, II. 195. Wasted away, in her unsubstantial proportions.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes (1850), 18/1. The suburbs are … even more unsubstantial-looking than the city.
1848. Mill, Pol. Econ., I. xi. § 3. 203. We can scarcely conceive more unsubstantial or temporary fabrics.
Hence Unsubstantialness.
1860. Pusey, Min. Proph., 465. The unsubstantialness of it all, the unsubstantiality of his lies.
