unbeˈlief
Forms: α. 2 unbelefe, 4 vnbylefe; 3 unbileue, -leaue, 4 vnbi-, vnbyleue, 4, 6 unbeleue (4 -leeue, 6 -leve). β. 6 vnbelefe, 6–7 -leefe, -liefe, 6– unbelief (6–7 -liefe).
[un-1 12.]
Absence or lack of belief; disbelief, incredulity. a. In matters of religion.
| α c 1160 Hatton Gosp. Mark xvi. 14 Heom atewede se hælend & here unbelefen & heora heorten ᵹe-tremede. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 81 He..blamede here un-bileue & here unwreste liflode. a 1225 Leg. Kath. 259 Wið neauer an ne keccheð he creftiluker cang men, ne leadeð to unbileaue. 1382 Wyclif Matt. xiii. 58 He dide nat there manye vertues, for the vnbyleue of hem. a 1400 New Test. (Paues) Heb. iii. 12 Loke ȝe, wheþer þer be in any of ȝou an efel herte of vnbylefe. 1526 Tindale Rom. xi. 20 Be cause of vnbeleve they are broken of. 1567 Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 13 Saif vs..from dispair, From unbeleue, and Lollardis lair. |
| β 1531 Tindale Exp. 1 John ii. (1538) 39 The doctrine of them..that say, vnbelefe to be the mother of al vyce. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. xxii. §4 Their vnbeleefe in that case we may not impute vnto any weakness..in the meanes. 1634 Milton Comus 519 Such there be, but unbelief is blind. 1680 J. Flavel Meth. Grace xxxii, Positive Unbelief, is the Sin of Men and Women under the Gospel. 1705 Atterbury Serm. (1726) II. 51 For the Mind doth, by every degree of affected Unbelief, contract more and more of a general Indisposition towards Believing. 1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1865) 57 As much as I love my fellow-men, so much and no more will I be intolerant of their heresies and unbelief. 1858 J. Martineau Stud. Chr. 27 The second of these books would be condemned for heresy, and the first for unbelief. 1897 Liddon, etc. Life Pusey IV. iii. 73 Those forms of German unbelief with which..he had become painfully familiar at Göttingen. |
b. In general use.
| 1649 J. Taylor (Water P.) Western Voy. 15 It is a hazard of the losse of a traveller's liberty by either their unbeliefe or misprision. a 1800 Cowper Odyssey (ed. 2) xiv. 177 Since, hopeless of thy lord's return, Thou art thus resolute in unbelief. 1855 Poultry Chron. II. 566/1 The tables were turned on me by the man, who had I suppose observed my previous gesture of unbelief. 1900 Longm. Mag. Mar. 465, I had received the news with contemptuous unbelief. |
c. Personified.
| 1744 Akenside Pleas. Imag. iii. 122 Where watchful Unbelief Darts through the thin pretence her squinting eye. 1781 Cowper Truth 445 Thus often unbelief, grown sick of life, Flies to the tempting pool, or felon knife. |