a. Chiefly Sc. Forms: 5 wn-, 6–7 vn-, untymous, 6 untimus, 7–8 untimous; 6 untymeus, 7 -tymeous, 9 -timeous. [Alteration of earlier untimes, untymys (see UNTIME sb. 1 b), by assimilation to adjs. in -(E)OUS. For this change of ending cf. UNDEEMOUS a.]
1. Unseasonable; = UNTIMELY a. 2, 3.
a. 1500. Ratis Raving, 95. Tak not delyt in morne slepinge, Wnymous eting na drynkynge.
a. 1584. Montgomerie, Cherrie & Slae, 397. Vntymous spurring spillis the steid.
1586. Reg. Privy Council Scot., IV. 74. The inoportune and untymous sutes of divers personis.
1640. R. Baillie, Canterb. Self-convict., Pref. We could not but leave … to you … the legacie of an untimous repentance.
1670. Ray, Prov., 28. Of untymous persons … He is as welcome as snaw in harvest.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xvi. It required all the authority … which Quentin could exert over him, to restrain his irreverent and untimeous jocularity.
1883. Contemp. Rev., Oct., 612. You do not find yourself oppressed by untimeous volunteered franknesses.
b. Of times (esp. of the night).
1728. Ramsay, Monk & Miller’s Wife, 60. Wha’s that gi’es fowk a fright At sic untimous time of night?
1836. M. Scott, Cruise Midge, I. 349. Wha makes such an indecent uproar … at such an untimeous season?
1837. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. I. Grey Dolphin. To inquire who sought admittance at that untimeous hour.
1894. Crockett, Raiders, iii. It was this which had raised me at such untimeous hours.
2. Premature; UNTIMELY a. 1.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), II. 408. He … was prevenit be untimus deith.
1603. James I., Βασιλικον Δωρον, To Rdr. A 8 b. So as this their great concurrence in curiositie … hath inforced the vn-timous divulgating of this booke.
1634. Canne, Necess. Separ., 83. If his death was vntimous, it was rather for his secret intentions crossing his fathers courses.
1646. R. Baillie, Anabaptism (1647), 66. The change … ere long … brought upon him an untimous and cruell death.
1828. Moir, Mansie Wauch, xiii. I believe he came to some untimeous end.
