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▪ I. unˈfortunate, a. and n.
[un-1 7 and 5 b.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of persons, etc.: Not favoured by fortune; meeting with bad fortune; suffering mishap or mischance; unlucky.
For examples of the superlative in -est see (b).
1530Palsgr. 328/1 Unfortunate,..malfortuné. 1553Brende Q. Curtius iv. 55 b, I haue learned to be vnfortunate, and it is often tymes a comforte of a mans calamitie to knowe his misshapp. 1577tr. Bullinger's Decades 254 Hee was of all the Jewishe kinges..in his lyfe the most vnfortunate. 1652Nicholas Papers (Camden) 315 He hath been not only unfortunate in most of his counsels but incompatible in business. 1680Charac. Town-Miss (Hindley III) 5 She shall..fall a Sniveling and call herself the most unfortunate of Women. 1769Robertson Chas. V, ii. Wks. 1813 VI. 81 It was late next morning before the fate of the unfortunate prince was known. 1804–6Syd. Smith Mor. Philos. (1850) 218 You travel for twenty or five-and-twenty miles over one of the most unfortunate, desolate countries under heaven. 1885‘Mrs. Alexander’ Valerie's Fate vi, The unfortunate gentleman was well known... What a blow his death will be to..his partner!
absol.1675Dryden Aurengz. v. (1676) 72 Envious death will shun th'unfortunate. 1712Pope Lett. (1735) I. 177 The Unfortunate of all People are the most unfit to be left alone. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xxvii. (1787) III. 7 He was taught, by cruel experience, that every gate is shut against the unfortunate. 1825Scott Talism. xx, To have doomed the unfortunate to death might have been severity, but had a show of justice.
(b)1622R. Hawkins Voy. S. Sea 2 The Revenge, which was ever the vnfortunatest Ship the late Queenes Maiestie had. 1639S. Du Verger tr. Camus' Admir. Events 35 Tearming himselfe the unfortunatest of all lovers. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop xxix, I remember the time when he was the unluckiest and unfortunatest of men.
†b. Const. of. Obs.—1
1611Speed England, Wales ii. vii, The Townes for commerce,..two of them vnfortunate of their former greatnes.
c. In specific uses: (see quots.).
1785Grose Dict. Vulg. T., Unfortunate gentlemen, the horse guards, who thus named themselves in Germany. 1792Observer 24 June 3/1 The great number of unfortunate young women, who nightly parade the streets of this immense metropolis, for the horrid purpose of..prostitution of their persons. 1796― Unfortunate women, prostitutes. 1827Hare Guesses Ser. i. (1847) 154 As a strumpet is become an unfortunate female. 1883M. B. Betham-Edwards Disarmed xxxviii, Alice Ashe, seamstress, unmarried, ‘unfortunate’.
2. Marked by, or associated with, misfortune or mishap; disastrous, inauspicious. Also, in weaker sense: Untoward, unlucky, regrettable.
a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 178 What number of noble men haue ben..executed sith that vnfortunate day. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 404 b, But after chaunced a time more unfortunate. 1600Hakluyt Voy. III. 318 They put themselues to sea, and with so slender victuals, that the end of their interprise became vnluckly and vnfortunate. 1626D'Ewes in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. III. 218 By reason of suspicion of irregularitie upon the unfortunate killing of a man some few yeares since. 1671Milton Samson 747 In some part to recompense My rash but more unfortunate misdeed. 1779Mirror No. 33, But for this unfortunate weakness, Mr. Gold..would make one of the best of husbands. 1846A. Marsh Father Darcy II. xxi. 354 Would not some link of connexion with this ‘unfortunate business’, as he styled it, be detected? 1885‘Mrs. Alexander’ At Bay iii, Is it not unfortunate?..my father can not return till to-morrow. 1890Retrospect Med. CII. 103 The word ‘massage’ seems rather an unfortunate one to apply to the procedure.
B. n.
1. One who is unfortunate; an unfortunate person.
1683T. Hoy Agathocles 23 But of the brave Unfortunates was none Whose glorious Suff'rings Philocles out-shone. 1697G. Burghope Disc. Relig. Assemb. 87 Out of pity to those unfortunates that are design'd for that place [sc. hell]. 1776S. J. Pratt Pupil of Pleas. (1777) I. 206 You..appeared only in the light of a person..not allied to the parent of that dear unfortunate. 1801Monthly Mag. II. 131 You will not be able to avoid pitying these unfortunates when they inform you that their souls are mortal. 1875Whitney Life Lang. i. 2 These unfortunates are wont to be trained and taught by those who speak.
2. A fallen woman; a prostitute.
1803G. Colman John Bull ii. ii. 20 Frank. Where is the reparation to the unfortunate he has deserted? Shuffleton... A great many unfortunates sport a stilish carriage. 1844Hood Bridge of Sighs i, One more Unfortunate..Gone to her death! 1866Rogers Agric. & Prices I. v. 118 Unfortunates committed to prison were in evil case.
3. Irish. An idiot.
1881Folk Lore Rec. IV. 113 Do you see that ‘innocent’ or ‘unfortunate’ or ‘object’?
▪ II. † unˈfortunate, v. Obs.
[un-2 6 a.]
trans. To make unfortunate or unlucky.
1602Carew Cornwall 101 b, By his dreery influence, [he] unfortunateth any birth that shal then casually befall. 1653W. Ramesey Astrol. Restored 317 An Eclipse of the Sun..unfortunateth the Sea and the affairs thereof.
Hence † unˈfortunating ppl. a.
1647Lilly Chr. Astrol. xxii. 131 If the unfortunating Planet be in the seventh. |