ppl. a. (UN-1 8.)
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 352. By my maiden honor, yet as pure As the vnsullied Lilly.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., III. (1626), 56. The linked Deities their Graces fix! Where Roses with vnsullied Lillyes mix!
1717. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to C’tess of Mar, 18 April. That lovely bloom of complexion, unsullied by art.
1755. J. G. Cooper, Tomb Shaks., 26. Here Fancy sat, (her dewy fingers cold Decking with flow’rets fresh th’ unsullied sod).
1828. Lytton, Pelham, I. xiv. Gloves of most unsullied doeskin.
1863. M. J. Berkeley, Brit. Mosses, i. 3. Stems … of a clear unsullied green.
b. In fig. use.
1659. W. Chamberlayne, Pharon., Ded. My more youthful labours … passed the public view unsullied by the cloudy aspect of the most critic spectator.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low C. Wars, 113. His Mind, that never was greedy after Wealth, and, in that respect, unsullied and upright.
1743. Francis, trans. Hor., Odes, IV. v. 29. Nobly conscious of unsullied Fame.
1774. W. Whitehead, Plays & Poems, II. 171. The pure unsullied thoughts, and sallies of our souls.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 247. In the midst of a corrupt court he had kept his personal integrity unsullied.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, I. 256. The unsullied sanctity of Jehovah’s Temple.
Hence Unsulliedness.
1863. Mrs. Whitney, F. Gartney’s Girlh., xx. Her sweet look and fair unsulliedness of attire.
1865. W. H. Gillespie, Arg. Being & Attrib. God, IV. ii. (1871), 142. Holiness is moral stainlessness, spotlessness, unsulliedness.
