v. [UN-2 3.] trans. To remove from thought; to annul or reverse by a mental effort. Also absol.
c. 1600. Chalkhill, Thealma & Cl., 537. Still the king burns, and still his working brain Plots and displots, thinks and unthinks again.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., II. iv. 104. I do beseech You (gracious Madam) to vnthinke your speaking, And to say so no more.
1640. C. Harvey, Confusion, i. One while I think, and then I am in pain To think how to unthink that thought again.
1675. J. Howe, Living Temple, I. iii. 109. That the same thing is not thought and unthought, resolved and unresolved a thousand times in a day.
1709. O. Dykes, Eng. Prov. & Refl. (ed. 2), 6. There’s no unthinking a Misfortune, after it has befallen us for want of Precaution or Foresight.
1811. Henry & Isabella, I. 6. They knew not how to think, and unthink so often that this world is, and is not a good place.
1818. Cobbett, Pol. Reg., XXXIII. 527. To imagine that gags … will induce the people to unthink their present thoughts and unfeel their present feelings!
1849. D’Israeli’s Cur. Lit., II. 428. Bayle stands among those masters of the human intellect who taught us to think, and also to unthink!
1894. Illingworth, Personality, iv. 91. There is no question of the inevitableness of this conclusion; we cannot avoid it, we cannot unthink it.
