a. [UN-1 7.]
1. fig. Unpalatable, disagreeable.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke, Pref. vi. Suche thynges as these, so ferre contrarie to all mennes … thynkyng, and thynges so vntouthsome for menne to be fond on.
1583. Babington, Commandm. (1590), 354. Vntoothsome is that trueth euer, that treadeth downe my liking.
1632. Shirley, Hyde Park, II. iv. You shall not ask me … How old I am—a question most untoothsome.
a. 1680. Charnock, Attrib. God (1834), II. 89. Their doctrine was … untoothsome to the world.
2. Unpleasant or unattractive to the taste.
1576. R. Peterson, G. della Casa’s Galateo, 99. The selly sickman, to whom al cates neuer so … sweete, seeme vntoothsome.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 407. Their grapes … be very harsh and in tast untoothsome.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Wks., I. 60/1. The drugs, the drenches, and vntoothsome drinks.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv., 245. Nay…, is it not unwholesom, heavy and untoothsom without Salt?
Comb. 1900. Battersby, in Morning Post, 3 March, 5/7. A make believe of grass, a sparse, dried, untoothsome-looking herbage, which man and beast accepted as fodder.
Hence Untoothsomeness.
1623. Bp. Hall, Contempl., O. T., XIX. x. The asse was (besides the untoothsomnesse) an impure creature.
