1579 E. K. in E. Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Ep. Ded. Such olde and obsolete wordes are most vsed of country folke.

1598 R. Barckley Disc. Felicitie of Man v. 537 A faithfull friend is hard to be found: the bare name onely remaineth, the thing is obsolet and growen out of vse.

1608 G. Chapman Conspiracie Duke of Byron iv. i You make all state before Vtterly obsolete; all to come, twice sod.

1663 J. Heath Flagellum (1672) 158 Though many pretty stories shall happily be told of this obsolete Princess.

1691 J. Harris Mistakes iv. 58 If I shou'd tell him that his Mistress's false; But stay that Topick's grown too obsolete.

1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iii. ii. 22 Lap in the old obsolete Language signifieth High.

a1780 J. Harris Philol. Inq. (1781) i. ii. 14 Of things obsolete, the names became obsolete also.

1824 M. M. Sherwood Lady of Manor III. ix. 62 Two female servants, whose prim and obsolete appearance were perfectly consistent with the venerable aspect of the place of their habitation.

1884 H. Arnold-Forster in Pall Mall Gaz. 14 Aug. 2/1 On the Pacific station..we have one obsolete ironclad, the Swiftsure.

1930 Economist 25 Jan. 163/2 The managing director of an important ship-building firm..expresses agreement with a statement that much of the plant in this industry is obsolete.

1967 A. E. Stevenson New Amer. II. iii. 64 Nothing is more hazardous in military policy than rigid adherence to obsolete ideas.

1989 Times Lit. Suppl. 26 May 580/3 One can imagine..a future in which the computer network will render the bookshop..obsolete.

1611 T. Coryate Crudities sig. T5 A very auncient statue.., with an Epitaph in such obsolete and difficult characters that I could not reade it.

1709 D. Manley Secret Mem. 2 Her Habit Obsolete and Torn, almost degenerated into Tatters.

1832 G. Downes Lett. from Continental Countries I. 351 The so-called Tomb of Nero. It is embellished with carving, and bears a nearly obsolete inscription.

1851 P. H. Gosse Naturalist's Sojourn Jamaica 51 After a while, the cliff becomes gradually obsolete, and the beach of coral sand reappears.

1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. II. 34 Cases of obsolete tubercle found in cancer..examined post-mortem.

1920 Act 10 & 11 George V c. 28 §10(2) The purchase or redemption..of obsolete or unproductive capital.

1989 Lens & Eye Toxicity Res. 6 725 Clearing of damaged or obsolete lens proteins may involve the participation of several protease activities.

1992 Amer. Jrnl. Kidney Dis. 20 124 Parenchymal fibrosis..[is] measured by assessing the degree of interstitial fibrosis and by counting obsolete glomeruli.

2001 Bioessays 23 677 Programmed cell death is a critical part of normal development, removing obsolete tissues or cells and sculpturing body parts to assume their appropriate form and function.

1732 Philos. Trans. 1731–2 (Royal Soc.) 37 217 The whole Worm was of an obsolete Purple Colour, and had several Bristles of a brown Grey.

1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. ii. xxxiii. 157 Carthamus, with an obsolete Crown to the Seeds.

1785 T. Martyn tr. J.-J. Rousseau Lett. Elements Bot. xxvii. 420 The middle lobe obsolete, or so small as to be obscure.

1807 J. E. Smith Introd. Physiol. & Systematical Bot. 377 Dorstenia, with its obsolete flowers, devoid of all beauty.

1826 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. IV. 293 Obsolete,..when a spot, tubercle, punctum, &c. is scarcely discoverable... This term is often employed where one sex, kindred species, or genera, want, or nearly so, a character which is conspicuous in the other sex, or in the species or genus to which they are most closely allied.

1864 F. O. Morris Nests & Eggs Brit. Birds I. 69 They [sc. the eggs of long-tailed tit] are sometimes entirely white, or with the spots almost obsolete.

1988 Zool. Jrnl. Linn. Soc. 94 225 Coxal endite obsolete.

1641 J. Johnson Acad. Love 28 Of all the prepositions we except onely Adversus and Contra; conjunctions Adversatives, and Diminatives we hold to be meere obsoletes.

1747 S. Richardson Clarissa II. iii. 15 We bandy'd it about among twenty of us, as an obsolete.

1849 H. Melville Mardi II. xviii. 74 And here, strewn about, all dusty and disordered, were the precious antiques, and curios, and obsoletes.

1885 Pall Mall Gaz. 13 Oct. 4/2 Seniority is the rule of all the services..which fills the army with martinets, the navy with tubs,..the State generally with the amiable obsoletes.

1900 Daily Express 28 June 4/4 Bringing out Obsoletes [sc. the war-ships Sultan, Dreadnought, and Superb].

1640 J. Pym in J. Rushworth Hist. Coll.: Third Pt. (1692) I. 133 But when Religion is innovated,..our modern Laws already obsoleted [etc.].

1718 J. Chamberlayne in tr. B. Nieuwentyt Relig. Philosopher I. Ded. p. vj We..are not to be justify'd in Losing and Obsoleting so many of our..Anglo-Saxon Words and Phrases.

1873 F. Hall Mod. Eng. vii. 261 (note) And here I may mention sennight, for ‘week’, only recently obsoleted.

1873 W. G. Williams Ingham Lect. 7 The favorite form of attack in our time is that which patronizes religion, but throws contempt on revelation. Its boast is, that science has obsoleted the Bible.

1894 Polit. Sci. Q. 9 342 Much judicial learning and text-book discussion have been ‘obsoleted’ by the passage of a particular statute.

1944 Amer. Speech 19 234/1 A number of new laws and regulations..will almost certainly obsolete anything we might have given you during the past couple of months.

1975 Sci. Amer. Feb. 39/1 (advt.) Our precoated sheet failed to obsolete the glass TLC plate.

1991 Backpacker Oct. 7/2 (advt.) A dual-density orthotic, one whose construction obsoletes the typical foam slab found in ordinary boots.

1680 R. Bolron Papists Oath Secrecy 3 Care of gaining Souls became..Obsoleted.

1997 Anyone get Info on Obsoleted DELL 466T Please? in comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems (Usenet newsgroup) 20 Sept. Does anyone own or have information on a obsoleted Dell Computer which went under the product name of a 466T?

1657 W. Morice Coena quasi Κοινὴ Def. ii. 41 Fettering themselves with an oath..to the disparagement and obsoleting of the Scriptures.

1960 V. Packard Waste Makers vii. 76 Even pre-teen boys' shoes were slated for obsoleting.

1963 R. B. Fuller Nine Chains to Moon 253 The technology which arose to produce and support it at the obsoleting level then becomes available to world society for everyday technical-economic satisfactions.