1. = INSUFFICIENT a. 1.
1395. Purvey, Remonstr. (1851), 82. It is not declarid … that the clerk was vnsufficient, neither vnable.
c. 1445. Pecock, Donet, 145. And þanne, wherto schulde þe sufficient be lefte, and þe vnsufficient be taken,… in a purpos so necessarye?
c. 1450. Myrr. our Ladye, 137. We oughte to knowe oure selfe vnsuffycyente & therfore pray for helpe.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VI. cxlix. 136. Consyderynge the vnablenesse of Hilderich the kynge, that he was vnsufficient to rule so great a charge.
1535. Coverdale, Bible, Prol. ¶ 7. As for the commendacyon of Gods holy scripture … I am farre vnsufficient therto.
a. 1617. Hieron, Wks. (1619), II. 474. This miserie of hauing none among them but an vnseasoning and vnsufficient minister.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. iii. 9. Being unprovided, or unsufficient for higher speculations.
2. = INSUFFICIENT a. 2.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. i. (Bodl. MS.), fol. 185 b. Also in some trene þe [humoure] is vnsufficiaunte and vnperfecte.
1482. Monk of Evesham (Arb.), 109. Wat sum euer may be seyde of hyt by mannys mowthe, ful lytyl hyt ys, and onsufficient to expresse the ioy of myne herte.
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utopia, I. (1895), 96. He perceiued the same stocke of money to be to litel, and vnsufficient.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lx. § 7. When vnder vnsufficient pretences wee defraude them of such ordinarie outward helpes as wee should exhibit.
1625. Gill, Sacr. Philos., Pref. You say that reason is an unsufficient meane, and unable to bring us to the knowledge of those things.
1656. Jeanes, Mixt. Schol. Div., 5. Our Saviour’s discourse sheweth, that these were weak and unsufficient grounds.
Hence † Unsufficiently adv.; -ness. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. xxxi. (Bodl. MS.). Whanne þe lunges beþ igreued with … bocches … he serueþ þe hert *vnsufficiantlich of aier.
c. 1440. Alph. Tales, 143. One of þe cardynals when he hard þis, began to gruche agayn þe pope, & said he demyd vnsufficientlie.
c. 1455. Pecock, Folewer, 204. Ellis y wolde graunte þat y vnsufficientli nombrid þe poyntis of goddis lawe in þe … tablis.
a. 1600. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., VI. vi. § 13. Absolving of unsufficiently disposed penitents.
1685. Petty, Will, p. v. The admeasurement of the lands … was most unsufficiently and absurdly managed.
1533. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 286/2. Sua that oure soverane lord and his liegis be nocht begylit tharewith anent the *unsufficientnes of the samyn.
