unmercenaryadj.

1608 T. Dekker Dead Tearme sig. F2^v With a free and vn-mercenary voyce, haue I pleaded for thy good.

1643 W. Prynne Soveraigne Power Parl. i. Pref. sig. A ij^v The cordiallest Endevours of a reall unmercenary Philo-pater.

1737 A. Hill Tears of Muses Ep. Ded. p. v What a National Deliverance were This!—With what Effusion of unmercenary Gratitude would it immortalize those generous Conquerors.

1815 G. Brydges Archaica Pref. p. vii That literature, to which,..[the editor] has been through life a devoted and unmercenary slave.

1891 G. Meredith One of our Conquerors III. i. 14 She was all impulse; a shifty piece of unmercenary stratagem occasionally directing it.

1904 J. Conrad Nostromo i. viii. 90 She had laid her unmercenary hands, with an eagerness that made them tremble, upon the first silver ingot turned out still warm from the mould.

2000 N. Henderson Old Friends & Mod. Instances (2001) ii. 43 That Noël chose to pursue an academic career..is some indication..of his own unmercenary and unworldly persuasion.

1656 R. Garbutt Demonstr. Resurrection Christ 56 See it in St. Pauls unmercenariness so far that he is willing, yea glad, very glad to spend and to be spent for mens Salvations.

1863 Notes & Queries 3rd Ser. 4 301 The genus ‘he-flirt,’ a race which is unhappily increased by the unmercenariness of mothers and chaperones.

1973 Listener 29 Nov. 755/1 The group's extreme unmercenariness. ‘They aren't worried about making money.’