1850 Daily News 8 Feb. 6/2 What were the points of this spirit of negation and unpromise?

1866 Pall Mall Gaz. 12 May 12 Gaze down into the future upon the hateful Land of Unpromise.

1933 Times Lit. Suppl. 16 Mar. 179/3 A country of such large unpromise is precisely the kind that a Grenfell..would choose for the scene of his life work.

2000 Mirror (Nexis) 2 May (Features section) 9 Hearts And Bones..started unpromisingly with a dinner party where everyone drank too much and talked twaddle. And it soon lived down to its unpromise.

1583 J. Prime Fruitefull & Briefe Disc. ii. 153 There is no variablenesse, nor shadow of turning, with the father of lights, that is, of turning now vp, now downe, nowe rising, now falling, now one way, now an other, of promising and vnpromising, &c.

1598 R. Cleaver Godly Form Househ. Gouernement 119 The partie vnpromising, is not bound by word nor deede.

1605 G. Chapman Al Fooles ii. i. 70 Promises are no fetters; with that tongue Thy promise past, unpromise it againe.

1672 E. Ravenscroft Citizen turn'd Gentleman iv. i. 64 Luc. But you have promis'd I should be his Wife. Jord. If I promised you, I unpromise you.

1704 J. Ozell tr. Molière Monsieur de Pourceaugnac ii. vi. 37 Jul. I will have him, that I will, since you promis'd me him. Trad. If I did promise it, I unpromise it.

1798 H. Brand Adelinda ii. vii, in Plays & Poems 296 Strasbourg. You yourself promised her to me. Dorcas. Well, than, I mysalf—my very own salf, Dorcas, who stand here pointing at yow, I now unpromise har.

1891 T. N. Page On Newfound River xviii. 195 ‘He came yesterday, and I promised him.’ She looked at him humbly, almost fearfully. ‘Well; you shall unpromise him.’

1909 C. Wells Dick & Dolly viii. 107 ‘I promised.’ ‘Well, unpromise then!’

2009 Daily Tel. (Austral.) (Nexis) 27 Jan. 17 The Iemma Government promised to widen the Spit Bridge in 2006, only to unpromise it two months after the 2007 election.