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▪ I. unˈstable, a.
[un-1 7, 5 b. Cf. obs. Du. onstabel, MHG. unstabel.]
1. a. Not remaining steadily in the same place; apt to move or be moved about.
a1225Ancr. R. 122 Ne scheaweð heo þet heo is dust, & vnstable þinc, þet mid a lutel wind of a word is anon to blowen. a1340Hampole Ps. x. 1 If i doe i sall be like a sparou, þat is, vnstabile and lyght. 1388Wyclif Gen. iv. 14 Y schal be vnstable of dwellyng and fleynge aboute in erthe. 1483Cath. Angl. 357/2 Vn Stabylle, argus, vagus. 1597R. Tofte, etc. Laura i. xviii, If Sea no other thing doth shew to bee Than most vnstable waters moouing oft. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 91 Sands..in great drifts..so light and vnstable, that the high wayes are neuer certaine. 1653W. Ramesey Astrol. Restored 179 Aries,..though it be a sign fiery, yet is it moveable and unstable.
b. Not steady in position; readily swaying or shaking; liable to swing or fall.
1390Gower Conf. I. 200 Now herke how thilke unstable whel, Which evere torneth, wente aboute. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. xi. 37 Stonde he neuere so styfliche þorgh sterynge of the bote, He bendeþ and boweþ, þe body is vnstable. c1480Henryson Fables, Cock & Fox 199 Thy strenth is nocht, thy stule standis vnstabill. a1542Wyatt in Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 38 So foloweth me remembrance of that face: That with my teary eyn, swolne, and vnstable, My desteny to beholde her doth me lead. 1567Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 106 As quheill vnstabill and caffe befoir the wind. 1600Fairfax Tasso xix. xiii, When the still windes stirre not th' vnstable maine. 1736Thomson Liberty iv. 302 On each hand Amazing seen amid unstable waves, The splendid palace shines. 1760Goldsm. Cit. W. ii, A strange people..who have founded an empire on this unstable element [sc. the ocean]. 1857Buckle Civilis. vii. 347 The sailor is naturally more superstitious than the soldier, because he has to deal with a more unstable element. 1873Maxwell Electr. & Magn. I. 141 The body therefore is unstable even when constrained to move parallel to itself, à fortiori it is unstable when altogether free.
c. Of movement: Unsteady; irregular.
1549Compl. Scot. vi. 54 It makkis ane onstabil reuolution in thre hundretht xlviij dais. 1819Scott Ivanhoe xlii, Down he came, with an unstable step and a strong flavour of wine.
d. Mech. Of equilibrium (q.v.).
1839G. Bird Nat. Philos. 31 The body will be in a state of unstable equilibrium. 1860All Year Round No. 69. 450 An acrobat balances a ladder on his shoulder; on the ladder, perhaps will mount a child... The whole are in unstable equilibrium.
2. Not stable in purpose; vacillating, fickle, changeable.
c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 319/685 Wrathþe he berth luytel ȝwyle:..Glad and bliþe, and onstable of þat he hath to done. 1297R. Glouc. 10507 He made of þe olde lawes is chartre atte laste,..& aselede is vaste inou, Ac suþþe as vnstable man wiþ sede & wiþ drou. c1305Pilate 183 in E.E.P. (1862) 116 Alle þat ihurde þis cas Wondrede moche of þemperour, þat he vnstable was. c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. II. 10 Þis Emperour..was unstable as watir. c1400Destr. Troy 8057 Hit is a propertie apreuit..To all wemen..To be vnstable & not stidfast. c1450tr. De Imitatione iii. l. 121 Euery man is a lyer, sike, unstable, and slydyng. c1485Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 588 Woman, why art þou so onstabyll?.. why art þou a-ȝens god so veryabyll? 1509–10Act 1 Hen. VIII, c. 11 Many lyght and unstable Persons. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. V, 38 The Cambers, otherwise called the vnstable Welshemen. 1607Shakes. Cor. iii. i. 148 It must omit Reall Necessities, and giue way the while To vnstable Slightnesse. 1653Milton Ps. v. 25 In his faltring mouth unstable No word is firm. 1661South Serm. (1715) III. 192 Such Pretenders may beguile Factious and Unstable Minds. 1791Wolcot (P. Pindar) Lousiad iii. ix, [A deed] Which Cain perform'd, in godliness unstable. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xv. III. 613 His nature, lamentably unstable, was not ignoble. 1891Farrar Darkn. & Dawn xxv, Onesimus was too unstable to withstand the combined temptations by which he was surrounded.
absol.1582N. T. (Rhem.) 2 Pet. iii. 16 Certaine things hard to be vnderstoode, which the vnlearned and vnstable depraue. 1630H. Lynde (title), Via Devia: The By-Way: Mis-leading the weake and vnstable into dangerous paths of Error. 1650Baxter Saints' R. iii. xi. §18. 497 Drawing off the unstable from the doctrine and way of life.
3. a. Not fixed in character or condition; exposed to vicissitude or chance; apt to change or alter; variable.
c1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 1420 Þe worlde is swa unstable, Alle þat men sese þar-in es chaungeable. c1375Lay Folks Mass-Bk. (MS. B.) 390 Þo weders grete & vnstable, Lord make gode. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 139 Hap was vnstable and vnstedefast; ones wiþ þat oon side, and eft wiþ þat oþer. c1412Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 705 O lord! þis world vnstabyl is. c1450tr. De Imitatione iii. lxiv. 149, I finde all vnferme & vnstable, what euere I beholde oute of þe. 1513Douglas æneid xi. viii. 118 The variant chance Of our onstabill lyfe. a1542Wyatt in Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 35 Vnstable dreame,..Be stedfast ones, or els at least be true. a1642Sir F. Kynaston Leoline & Sydanis 141 O wretched state unstable Of mortal men! 1657in Verney Mem. (1907) 560 These giddy and unstable times. 1768Boswell Corsica ii. 73 The Genoese..were.. in an unstable, and perilous condition. 1796F. Burney Camilla III. 75 We must allow to our unstable virtues all the encouragement that can prop them. Ibid. V. 540 The perpetual vicissitudes of our unstable condition. 1829Hood Eugene Aram 46 Or is it some historic page Of kings and crowns unstable? 1863H. Cox Instit. iii. iii. 628 That all oligarchies and democracies are unstable. 1884Church Bacon ix. 223 English seemed to him too homely to express the hopes of the world, too unstable to be trusted with them.
b. spec. in Chem.
1849D. Campbell Inorg. Chem. 216 Its [sc. suboxide of copper] salts are very unstable. 1857Miller Elem. Chem., Org. 59 Grape sugar forms definite but unstable combinations with the alkaline bases. 1890Retrospect Med. CII. 2 The chloral hydrate is, comparatively, an unstable compound.
c. Physics. (Cf. stable a. 3 d.)
1904F. Soddy Radio-Activity viii. 123 Our knowledge of unstable atoms is necessarily limited. Ibid. 124 Radio⁓activity..has thus introduced us to a whole series of new unstable elements. 1924O. Lodge Atoms & Rays ii. 33 The possibility of building up still more complex, and probably still more unstable, elements..remains a subject for future discovery. 1981C. E. Swartz Phenomenal Physics xxxiii. 715 Most elements exist naturally as a mixture of several isotopes... The diagram shows all of the stable isotopes, and many of the unstable ones.
4. Not firm or solid; insecure.
1565Jewel Repl. Harding (title-p.), The Weake and vnstable Groundes of the Romaine Religion. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 597 The Earth was couered with sand, which yeelded an vnstable footing.
▪ II. unˈstable, v.
[un-2 5.]
† trans. To free of.
1612T. Adams Gallant's Burden 32 If our harts be vnstabled of these beastiall lusts. |