† 1. Of inestimable value; = INVALUABLE a. 1. Obs. (Common in 17th c.)
1569. T. Norton, Warning agst. Papists, A ij. Thinke vpon the … miseries that we all shalbe like to susteine by losse of her vnualuable presence.
1591. Horsey, Trav. (Hakl. Soc.), 160. The riches … caried owt of these citties … was unvaluable.
a. 1616. Beaum. & Fl., Lit. Fr. Lawyer, III. i. That Jewel, Because it had no flaw, you held unvaluable.
1691. W. Nicholls, Answ. Naked Gospel, 2. When he hath sent his only begotten Son … to purchase our Redemption by such an unvaluable price.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1692), 4. The use of our Hand, that unvaluable Instrument.
1712. Lond. Gaz., No. 5037/6. The Blessings of Peace are unvaluable.
† b. Incalculable; = INVALUABLE a. 1 b. Obs.
1638. Rous, Heav. Acad., 132. It is an unvaluable losse, that men doe so much divide the outward Teacher from the inward.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Yorks., III. (1662), 225. Debasing the Forraign estimation of our Cloth to the unvaluable damage of our Nation.
a. 1683. Oldham, Rem., Wks. (1686), 6. Her Dowry … Which … we never gain But with unvaluable Cost.
2. Of no value, worthless; = INVALUABLE a. 2. Now rare.
1615. T. Adams, England’s Sickness, 57. If nature … deny health, how vnualuable are their riches.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Surv. Leviath. (1676), 55. To render those precious words unvaluable and of no signification.
1728. R. Morris, Ess. Anc. Archit., 89. The unvaluable Deformities of Singleness and Novelty.
1766. Museum Rust., VI. 15. I think the burnet so unvaluable, as to design to root it out of my ground.
1860. Ruskin, Unto this Last (1862), 118. In proportion as it leads away from life it is unvaluable or malignant.
Hence Unvaluableness.
1665. Dk. Ormonde, in Earl Orrery, St. Lett. (1742), 133. The cry was so great, upon the unvaluableness of the clothes given to the soldiery, that [etc.].
