[UN-1 11. Cf. MSw. otimelika in sense 1.]
1. At an unsuitable or improper time; unseasonably, inopportunely.
Not in common use before the end of the 16th cent.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 11. Swilche oðre [sins] … alse ben oueretes and untimeliche eten alehuse.
1382. Wyclif, Ps. civ. 28. He sente dercnessis, and made derc; and vntymely he fullfilde not [L. non exacerbavit] his woordis.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. v. 29. Now is the time, that I vntimely must Thereof make tryall, in my greatest need.
1596. Edward III., III. i. 184. Thus my tale is donne: We haue vntimly lost, and they haue woone.
1618. Rowlands, Night Raven (1620), D 2 b. I behold abuses … By such as doe vntimely haunt the street.
1667. Kath. Philips, Poems, 111. He only dies untimely who dies late.
1702. Rowe, Tamerl., III. ii. If I not press untimely on his leisure, You would [etc.].
1743. W. Whitehead, Ann Boleyn to Hen. VIII., 74. I fell untimely, and lament my Fall.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxii. To avenge the deed expelling Thee untimely from thy dwelling.
1882–3. Schaff’s Encycl. Relig. Knowl., II. 851/2. The moment for this controversy was very untimely chosen by the Pope.
2. Before the proper or natural time; prematurely.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. x. O sweet youth,… how untimely subject it is to devotion?
1611. Guillim, Heraldry, II. iv. 46. I haue inserted the same (although vntimely) in this place, which otherwise I would haue reserued to some other.
1660. Trial Regic., 36. When that Blessed King was untimely taken away.
1721. Pope, Ep. to Earl Oxford, 2. ’Till Death untimely stopp’d his tuneful tongue.
1766. Museum Rust., VI. 74. Trees … untimely taken off, before they arrive at any valuable maturity.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Loom & Lugger, I. ii. 17. Legs bowed from having been made untimely to bear the weight of the swollen body.
1857. Pusey, Real Presence, i. 64. Melancthon … prolonged the conference, only lest he should seem to break it off untimely.
