unˈaptness
[un-1 12 and 5 b.]
Inaptitude.
| 1557 Act 4 & 5 Phil. & Mary c. 3 §1 The same Disability and Unaptness notwithstanding, the same unable and unmeet Persons..have been also released. 1595 Daniel Civ. Wars iv. xviii, And languishing luxuriousnes had spred Feeble vnaptnes ouer all the land. 1605 Verstegan Dec. Intell. ix. 291 The trees grow but low..by reason of the vnaptnesse of the soyle. 1652 W. Hartley Inf. Bapt. 12 The prohibition hath peculiar relation to the unaptness of the sacrificers. 1676 Phil. Trans. II. 739 That seminal root..hindred by the unaptness of the place. 1710 Norris Chr. Prud. ii. 98 He often fails as to his Means, as well as to his End, I don't mean as to their unaptness. |
b. Const. for, to (with n. or inf.).
| 1548 Elyot, Prosedanium, a disease which happeneth to..beastes, whiche is vnaptenesse to generacion through to muche labour. 1600 W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 165 M. Blackwels simplicitie and vnaptnesse to gouerne. 1654 Nicholas Papers (Camden) II. 55 The naturall unaptness hee has for that exercise. 1670 Clarendon Contempl. Ps. Tracts (1727) 729 An unaptness to be confident of what they see and feel. a 1688 W. Clagett 17 Serm. (1699) 216 There will be laziness and slothfulness, and unaptness for instruction. 1860 Rawlinson Herodotus ix. lxx. IV. 442 note, A general unaptness for the mechanical arts? |