unploughedunplowedadj.
/(ˌ)ʌnˈplaʊd/, U.S. /ˌənˈplaʊd/ 1.
a. Of an area of land: not ploughed. Also with up. Also figurative or in figurative contexts.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > breaking up land > ploughing > [adjective] > unploughed
unearedc1000
unploughed1523
unharrowed1580
unfoiled1611
quick1620
maiden1622
1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Surueyeng xxxvi. f. xlix Lyght grounde wyll soone weare and wasshe with water, yf it be nat donged. And yf they lye vnplowed, they wyll growe full of brome and ferne.
1580 T. Lupton Siuqila 25 What is it to sowe seede uppon the grasse or greene swarde, unplowed or undigged?
1613 W. Browne Britannia's Pastorals I. ii. 30 Like to that smell, which oft our sense descries Within a field which long vnplowed lies.
1649 R. Lovelace Scrutinie iii Like skilfull Minerallists that sound For Treasure in un-plow'd-up ground.
1715 E. Baynard in J. Floyer & E. Baynard Ψυχρολουσια (ed. 4) Ep. Ded. ii When they are at a Stand, and their repeated Insignificancies baffled, they scratch the fallow and unplow'd-up Side of their Noddles, and propose a Hot or Cold Bath.
1762 A. Dickson Treat. Agric. i. iii. 40 Allow two fields to lie unploughed;..they will produce very different plants.
1787 W. Marshall Rural Econ. Norfolk I. 142 In rice-balking, the ‘flag’ is always turned toward the unplowed ground.
1835 C. Howard Gen. View Agric. E. Riding Yorks. 4 in Brit. Husbandry (Libr. Useful Knowl.) (1840) III The ridge freshly turned up then covers the unploughed ground.
1891 W. J. Malden Tillage 106 To throw the split-furrows on to the unploughed land.
1948 G. W. Southgate Eng. Econ. Hist. (new ed.) i. 5 The strips were marked off by nothing more than a row of stones or a grass balk of the width of a furrow left unploughed.
2000 Church Times 21 July 24/3 I declare it a meadow, for three years of being unploughed is bringing forth grasses galore.
b. Bookbinding. Of a book: not trimmed with a plough (plough n.1 5a). Cf. plough v. 9b. rare.
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society > communication > book > manufacture or production of books > book-binding > [adjective] > other processes
broken (over)1879
unploughed1886
1886 W. George's Catal. No. 129. 1 Cloth and boarded books are always edges unplowed (if so issued.)
c. Of an area, esp. a road: not cleared of snow with a snowplough. Cf. plough v. 9e.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > precipitation or atmospheric moisture > snow > [adjective] > covered with snow > blocked by snow
snowed-up1836
snowed-in1904
unploughed1923
1923 Boston Globe 24 Jan. 14/2 There have been many instances of eight or ten trucks being stuck in the snow on the same stretch of unplowed road.
1971 A. McCaffrey Mark of Merlin i. 10 The jeep's four-wheel drive found what traction there existed on the bad surface of the unplowed road.
1985 R. Davies What's bred in Bone (1986) ii. 90 In Spring, when the unploughed roads gradually lost their layers of snow, the droppings of November perfumed the air of April.
2009 J. Updike in New Yorker 16 Mar. 95/2 I had to move to beautiful New England—its triple deckers, whited churches, unplowed streets—to learn how drear and deadly life can be.
2. Of an area of water: not travelled by ships or boats. Cf. plough v. 5.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > lack of social communication or relations > retirement or seclusion > secluded place or place of seclusion > [adjective] > unfrequented > untrodden or untraversed
untroddena1300
unpassed1542
unsaileda1572
unridden1574
untroda1593
unpractised1621
unpassen1624
untouched1628
untraced1641
untravelled1646
untrampled1648
unwalked1648
unwandered1654
unploughed1655
uninfested1670
unentered1774
unkeeled1807
untraversed1807
unscaled1812
unvoyaged1816
unfooted1818
unthrid1843
unthreaded1895
1655 R. Fanshawe tr. L. de Camoens Lusiad v. xli. 104 My large Seas your daring keeles invade, Which I so long injoy'd, and kept alone, Unplough'd by forreign Vessel, or our owne.
1670 J. Ogilby tr. A. Montanus Atlas Japannensis 8 After his Decease, the whole business of Navigation fell, and the Sea lay Fallow, unploughed by the Portuguese twenty years.
1750 E. Kimber Life Joe Thompson II. xlvi. 143 The vast and unploughed Southern Ocean.
1839 H. Hallam Introd. Lit. Europe II. v. 287 The daring adventurer that violates their unploughed waters.
1859 M. F. Maury Physical Geogr. Sea (new ed.) ii. 38 This unploughed sea would be an oft-used thoroughfare.
1920 Proc. 10th Ann. Meeting Calif. Bar Assoc. 13 It brought at once fleets of ships to the unplowed waters of the Pacific.
1996 P. Hyland Backwards out of Big World v. 55 Portuguese who dared to navigate unploughed waters and to cross forbidden boundaries.
3. Of the face, brow, etc.: not furrowed deeply with wrinkles. Cf. plough v. 6. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > skin > textures or states of skin > [adjective] > wrinkle > not having
unwrinkled1547
smooth-faced1591
smooth-skinned1611
unpleated1612
unbunched1615
sleek1638
sleekyc1725
unploughed1826
unlined1840
1826 M. W. Shelley Last Man III. ix. 278 Beware, fair being, with human heart, yet untamed by care, and human brow, yet unploughed by time.
1864 W. C. Bryant New & Old 21 Brows unploughed by care.
1897 T. Hardy Well-beloved iii. ii. 248 A ruddy lip and cheek and an unploughed brow.
1969 R. A. Lafferty Fourth Mansions ii. 27 That unplowed face of Foley was getting faint plow-marks now.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2014; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.1523