[UN-1 10.]
1. of substances (or their structure): Not yielding to force or pressure; unpliant, unbending; stiff, hard. Also const. to.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 926. In physicks we see those things that are most stiffe and unyeelding, to be resisted and beaten off with the most soft things.
1736. Thomson, Liberty, V. 87. How shall this thy mighty Kingdom stand? On what unyielding base?
1744. Armstrong, Art Preserv. Health, II. 537. Hard unyielding unelastic bone.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 405. A soil unyielding to pressure.
1805. Southey, Madoc, II. x. 105. On the unyielding skin the temper’d blade Bent.
1854. Owen, in Orr’s Circ. Sci., Org. Nat., I. 228. A firm and unyielding support to the large head.
1889. Mrs. E. Kennard, Landing a Prize, vii. An unyielding ledge of wood.
2. Of persons, etc.: Not yielding, surrendering, submitting, or giving way; firm, obdurate, obstinate. Also const. to.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 423. Remoue your siege from my unyeelding hart.
1724. A. Hill, Prol. to Sir T. Overbury, 15. He swims, unyielding, against Fortune’s Stream.
1736. Thomson, Liberty, IV. 982. His unyielding Son these doctrines drank, With all a Bigot’s rage.
1777. Potter, Æschylus, Seven Chiefs, 191. Ah! what frentic rage possest Each unyielding, ruthless breast!
182[?]. Bryant, Hymn to Death, 146. When the earth Received thee, tears were in unyielding eyes And on hard cheeks.
1839. Hallam, Hist. Lit., iv. vii. § 19. The unyielding claw of a cold-blooded animal.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 333. Of all people in the wide world,… his cousin was … the most unyielding to argument.
transf. 1806. Byron, Childish Recollections, 6. Unyielding pangs assail the drooping mind.
1850. Scoresby, Cheever’s Whalem. Adv., i. [An] instance … of what commerce can do against unyielding laws of Nature.
1909. Daily Chron., 28 Sept., 5/4. The storm-driven snows had buried and bound the dogs in unyielding frost.
3. Characterized by firmness or obstinacy.
1677. Gilpin, Demonol., II. ii. 189. A kind of unnatural fury, which hurries Men with violence into an unyielding stifness.
1736. Thomson, Liberty, V. 370. A zeal unyielding in their country’s cause.
1779. Mirror, No. 8. I … observed an obstinate unyielding silence.
a. 1812. Buckminster, Serm. (1827), 60. Unyielding virtue is admired by the corrupt, disinterested goodness by the selfish.
1848. Buckley, Iliad, 227. The Greeks were routed, and an unyielding tumult ensued.
1882. Besant, All Sorts, xxi. She … sat bolt upright, the picture of unyielding determination.
Hence Unyieldingly adv.
[1847. Webster.]
1884. Pember, Earth’s Earliest Ages, i. 14. They hold … opinions of their own, and are unyieldingly tenacious of them.
1889. Stanley, in Daily News, 25 Nov., 5/8. There is a virtue, you know, even in striving unyieldingly.
