unˈlikeliness
[un-1 12. Cf. prec. and next.]
† 1. Unsuitableness. Obs.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus i. 16 For I þat god of loues seruantz serue Ne dar to loue for myn vnliklynesse. |
† 2. Unseemliness, unbecomingness. Obs.
| 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 190 Nevertheles and he saw..him mak grete repaire till his hous, and unlyklynes, he mycht mak him..exhortacioun to nocht mak sik unlikly repaire. 1685 H. More Paralip. Prophet. xxxiv. 306 What unlikeliness or Indecorum is it, that Proclamation be made who he is, that shall..[open] the Book? |
† 3. Dissimilarity, discrepancy. Obs.
| 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. ii. 143 It shall be sufficient that we wey the wordes of one of them, to attain the meaning of them both. Albeit, there is some vnlikelinesse betwene them. 1604 T. Wright Passions v. iv. 189 Likelinesse or vnlikelinesse are also relatives, and consequently belong to this same predicament. c 1620 Bp. Hall Contempl., N.T. ii. ii, Neither was there more unlikelinesse in their disposition and cariage, than similitude in their function. 1730 Bailey (fol.), Dissimilitude, unlikeliness. |
4. Unlikelihood, improbability.
| 1614 Raleigh Hist. World iii. vii. §4. 82 Whether Themistocles perceiued much vnlikelinesse of good successe [etc.]. 1690 Locke Human Understanding iv. xv. §2. 332 There being degrees herein, from the very neighbourhood of Certainty and Evidence, quite down to Improbability and Unlikeliness. 1841 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) VI. 160 The unlikeliness that he should get what he asked for. 1881 Saintsbury Dryden 72 The unlikeliness of his ever having been a very fervent Roundhead. |