improvidentadj.

c1487 J. Skelton tr. Diodorus Siculus Bibliotheca Historica iv. 291 For that there ne shall any thyng escape by emprovident rechelesnes that aptly with oure tretise may stande and agree..we woll now make relation more apparent of the seid women.

?1518 A. Barclay Fyfte Eglog sig. Aiij^v We fonde yonge people, be moche improuydent.

?1521 A. Barclay Bk. Codrus & Mynalcas sig. C.iii Worst yet of all, they count them exellent Thoughe they be frutelesse, rasshe & improuident.

1595 S. Daniel First Fowre Bks. Ciuile Warres iii. xxviii. sig. O^v When men well haue fed th' bloud being warme Then are they most improuident of harme.

1657 R. Ligon True Hist. Barbados 25 They could not have been so improvident, as not to foresee the main inconveniences that must ensue.

1758 J. Dalrymple Ess. Hist. Feudal Prop. (ed. 3) 122 In Scotland..by the statute of Alexander II. the attacher became absolute proprietor, and yet the law was so improvident, as to give no satisfaction to the lord for admitting him.

1795 Ld. Auckland Corr. (1862) III. 306 The improvident, undignified, and unwise conduct of the German powers.

1883 E. R. Pitman Garnered Sheaves xlix. 295 When her rather improvident marriage had suddenly made her acquainted with all these [wants], her temper got soured, and her patience exhausted, very prematurely.

1922 G. S. Hall Senescence iv. 171 The decrepitude of old age seems so remote and its attainment so uncertain that the masses of mankind are still far too improvident of the future.

1994 R. J. Quinones in S. L. Macey Encycl. Time 529 Time is the agent of an external reality that crashes through any improvident view of the world.

1589 A. Wingfield True Coppie Disc. 13 Whosoeuer made not verie large prouisions for himselfe and his company..was verie improuident, where was plentifull store of wine, beefe, and fish, and no man of place prohibited to laye in the same into their shippes.

1592 P. Moffett Comm. Prouerbes Salomon xi. 99 The prodigall foole and improuident housholder, who doth not rightly gouerne his familie or dispose his houshold affaires, but spendeth his goods prodigally.

1624 J. Smith Gen. Hist. Virginia iv. 110 So improuident as not to put Corne in the ground for their bread, but trusted to the store.

1749 J. Cleland Mem. Woman of Pleasure I. 119 On no better a plan..than this, had this improvident father suffer'd this youth..to run up to the age of manhood..in next to idleness.

1788 J. Priestley Lect. Hist. v. xxxviii. 279 Great numbers..will be improvident, spending every thing they have in the most extravagant manner.

1809–10 S. T. Coleridge Friend (1837) II. 199 They who live from hand to mouth, will most frequently become improvident.

1873 H. Spencer Study Sociol. xv. 366 The English people are complained of as improvident. Very few of them lay by in anticipation of times when work is slack.

1948 B. Griffith Amer. Me ii. i. 98 There is little foundation for the belief held by many social workers that Mexicans are improvident and thriftless.

1985 S. Gagnon Quebec & its Historians v. 121 An improvident spendthrift with luxurious tastes, a waster of money and farmland.

2013 Sunday Tel. (Nexis) 7 Apr. (Features section) 21 He was charming but improvident, died with astonishing debts and..was impoverished.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 1 (1623) ii. i. 59 Improuident Souldiors, had your Watch been good, This sudden Mischiefe neuer could haue falne. View more context for this quotation

1650 J. Bulwer Anthropometamorphosis 162 Behold..what the improvident curiosity of men hath thought on.

a1661 J. Glanville Voy. Cadiz (1883) 58 They cutt of some few of our improvident and stragling men.

?1819 D. Wall Twenty Years Confinement xvi. 204 I might have been compared to an imprudent child sporting amidst the flowers, improvident of a venomous reptile ready to make him feel the cruel point of its murderous sting.

1850 G. Grote Hist. Greece VII. ii. lv. 15 Amphipolis had been once lost by the improvident watch of Thucydidês and Euklês: it was now again lost by the improvident concessions of Nikias.

1727 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. II Improvidentness, want of Forecast, forethought, &c.

1783 Lady's Mag. Apr. 188/2 Ideas replete with illiterateness, and supported by improvidentness.

1825 R. A. Armstrong Gaelic Dict. 420/1 Neo-fhreasdalachd, improvidentness; unfavourableness.