1. Unfaithfulness; lack of fidelity, loyalty, or honesty. Now arch. and rare.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., III. xi. § 5. He … him wende from Antigones hamfærelte micelra untreowða. Ibid., IV. v. § 5.
a. 1122. O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 1086. Þa Dænescan … wurdon awende to þære meste untriwðe.
1340. Ayenb., 17. Þe uerste boȝ of prede þet is ontreuþe.
1400. trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 6. Hold trewly þy fayth hyght, ffor euer moor to all vntreuthe folwys euyl ende.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xvi. 387. Be my suretees, I praye you,… Ye knowe that I dyde never vntrewth.
1559. Mirr. Mag., C ij. I through flattery abused his wanton youth, And his fonde trust augmented my vntruth.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., II. ii. 101. I would to hauen (So my vntruth had not prouok’d him to it) The King had cut off my head.
1859. Tennyson, Elaine, 126. He never spake word of reproach to me, He never had a glimpse of mine untruth. Ibid., Guinevere, 537. Too wholly true to dream untruth in thee.
† 2. Unbelief; lack of faith. Obs.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 45. He shal reprove þe world of þe synne of untreuþe. Ibid., II. 20. Crist woundride of his kyn, for þe untreuþe þat þei hadden.
3. Falsehood, falsity.
1439. Cases bef. King’s Council (Selden), 105. To sey the playn trouth and nouȝt to melle it with eny ontrouth.
1482. in Surtees Misc. (1890), 40. To put down all falssett and untrewit.
1559. Bp. Scot, in Strype, Ann. Ref. (1709), I. App. x. 32. Bringinge … others from the truthe unto untruthe.
1577–82. Breton, Toyes Idle Head, Wks. (Grosart), I. 27/2. Such youthes there are … As with vntrueth their Ladies fancies feede.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, Pref. But yet cannot any vntruth preuayle … against truth…. For vntruth is contrary to nature.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., I. 2. This stinging censure of absurd vntrueth.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, III. 299. For his boldness in hoping to make me … testify to his great last hastening to be a falsity and speaker of the Untruth.
1873. Spencer, Stud. Sociol., xi. (1877), 265. Everyone discovers the untruth of this assumption.
b. A falsehood; a false or incorrect statement.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., III. xvii. 396. It is open that tho ij opiniouns, conclusiouns, and holdingis … ben errouris and vntreuthis.
1565. Jewel, Reply Harding, 554. Therefore M. Harding concludeth this mater with twoo vntruethes bothe togeather.
1585. in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ., V. 109. He saythe it is a great untruthe and cannot be prooved.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 2. All Trauellers are subject to imputations of vntruths.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. viii. 36. So singular a truth (as they think it, though it be many times an untruth they light on).
a. 1716. Blackall, Wks. (1723), I. 23. A very strange Paradox, or rather a most palpable Untruth.
1756. Gentl. Mag., XXVI. 144. The author of three letters … is taken into custody for the virulent abuse, and notorious untruths they contain.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, ii. I would be loath to reply to you with an untruth.
1863. P. Barry, Dockyard Econ., 215. He … asserts either an impudent or an ignorant untruth.
Comb. 1799. Southey, Devil’s Walk, liii. He is an untruth-telling whoreson.
4. Inexactness.
1869. Rankine, Machine & Hand-tools, Pl. H 9. The washers have sufficient play … to allow them to accommodate themselves to any untruth … on the surface of the nut.
Hence Untruther, one who utters untruths.
1889. J. K. Jerome, Three Men in Boat, vii. ‘You are an untruther,’ I replied, getting roused.
