1. Not washed; not cleaned by washing.
a. 1390[?]. Form of Cury, in Warner, Antiq. Culin. (1791), 21. Take Hares,… and seeþ hem with þe blode unwaisshed in broth.
a. 1400. Northern Passion, 346. Wasche fote and hand we pray þe, þat nokyn thyng vn wessched be.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 368/1. On-waschyd, illotus.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., II. IV. ii. 66. It is good to laye vppon the place vnwashed woulle.
1605. R. F., Dedekind’s Sch. Slovenrie (1904), 30. Then with your unwasht knife to cut your meate can breede no hurt.
1675. Han. Woolley, Gentlew. Comp., 179. Take Mallows and Mercury unwasht.
1751. Akenside, Ode to T. Edwards, vi. The sophist … With unwashed hands and lips profane.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xliv. She proceeded with unwashed hands to arrange the stipulated bed-linen.
1890. Anthony’s Photogr. Bull., III. 232. The emulsion is an unwashed one.
fig. 1607. B. Jonson, Volpone, Ep. ¶ 2. I … haue loathed the vse of such foule, and vn-wash’d Baudr’y. Ibid. (1611), Catiline, II. i. A slanderous, beastly, vnwash’d tongue.
1849. Lever, Con Cregan, xv. Wickedness in its most unwashed state.
2. spec. Of persons: Not having washed; not usually washed or in a clean state.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. ii. 201. Another leane, vnwash’d Artificer, Cuts off his tale, and talkes of Arthurs death.
a. 1727. Ballad on Quadrille, viii. The King of late … made, of many a Squire and Lord, An unwash’d Knight of Bath.
1781. Cowper, Table-t., 152. Clubs … To which th’ unwash’d artificer repairs.
1822. Scott, Nigel, Introd. Ep. All the unwashed artificers connected with literature.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., xviii. Why should not beggars go unwashed?
1868. [T. Wright], The Great Unwashed, Pref. Others who … are by the unwashed workers looked upon as swells.
b. absol. Those who are not usually in a clean state; the lower orders. Freq. with great.
(a) 1833. Hook, Parson’s Dau., II. 119. The ‘fat and greasy,’ and the ‘great unwashed,’ bowed and smiled their best.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, xxx. Gentlemen, there can be but little doubt that your ancestors were the Great Unwashed.
1868. [T. Wright], The Great Unwashed, Pref. Whenever … I speak of working men, or the working classes, it is in the ‘great-unwashed’ sense.
(b) 1853. in Thornton, Amer. Gloss., 920. A great portion of the unwashed, as well as the ‘unterrified’ left the hall.
1859. F. Mahony, Rel. Father Prout, 417. The ‘waters of instruction’ are to be plentifully supplied to the unwashed.
3. Not washed off or out.
1628. May, Virg. Georg., III. 94. Sweat unwash’d off [will] stick Vpon their new-shorne skins.
1842. Mrs. Browning, Grk. Chr. Poets, ii. ¶ 6. His happy Athenian associations gave a colour, unwashed out by tears, to his mind and works.
Hence Unwashedness.
1893. Harper’s Mag., Jan., 186/2. Various perfumes of unwashedness and misery.
