† 1. Uncommon, unusual; above the common, refined, rare. Obs.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. 40. O! furnish me with an un-vulgar stile.
1615. J. Stephens, Satyr. Ess., I. xv. 192. In his behauiour hee would seeme French, Italian, Spanish, or any thing, so he may seeme vnvulgar.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, IV. v. 199. There were no living … with us, unlesse something new and unvulgar be in our houses.
1713. Berkeley, Hylas & Phil., Pref. When they have taken a circuit through so many refined and unvulgar notions.
1736. Welsted, Wks. (1787), 427. Philosophers … too unvulgar to relish any Divinity that is not Pagan.
2. Free from vulgarity.
1819. L. Hunt, Indicator, No. 3 (1822), I. 19. The whole story is … unvulgar and … sweetly serious.
1839. J. H. Frere, Aristoph. Knights, p. iv. That admirable and most unvulgar exhibition of vulgar life, the Pickwick Papers.
