▪ I. unˈrest, n.
[un-1 4, 12. Cf. WFris. on-, ûnrêst, MLG., MHG. unreste; MDu. onraste (Du. onrast), MLG., MHG. unraste (G. unrast); MDu. onruste (Du. onrust), MLG. unruste (LG. unrust, unrüst, unrost), and wanrest.]
Absence of rest; disturbance, turmoil, trouble.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter lxxxiv. 8 Þe vnrest of þis life. Ibid. cxviii. 165 Charite puttis away..vnrest of thoght. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iv. 879 That cause is of þis sorwe and þis vnreste. 14.. Rule Syon Monast. liii. in Collect. Topogr. (1834) I. 31 In the dortour..none schal..make any noise of unreste, aboute makyng of ther beddes. c 1440 Gesta Rom. xlvii. 196 (Harl. MS.), Wher so euer..eny discorde or vnrest was regnynge. a 1513 Fabyan Chron. vii. 417 Which tourned hym to great dishonoure and his lordes to great vnrest. 1559 Mirr. Mag. (1563) V iv, Furth streamde the teares, recordes of his vnrest. 1638 W. Sclater Serm. Experimentall 50 A sweet soliloquie of David with his soul, checking it..for the disquiet, and unrest it passionately had plunged it self into. 1685 Dryden tr. Lucretius iii. 273 If the foolish race of man..Cou'd find as well the cause of this unrest, And all this burden lodg'd within the breast. 1815 Byron Parisina v, And mutters she in her unrest A name. 1849 Robertson Serm. Ser. i. i. (1866) 10 The unrest and the agony that lie hid in the heart of man. 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets i. 18 To the anarchy and unrest of transition succeeds the demand for constitutional order. |
b. In pl. Somewhat rare.
| 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes (1877) 17 Of thought cometh the wakyngis and vnrestis. 1513 Douglas æneid xiii. ii. 74 Be all wais noysum and onrestis, And all that horribill was. c 1611 Chapman Iliad viii. 405 Both Goddesses..contriving still afflicted Troy's unrests. 1628 Wither Brit. Rememb. vi. 1957 Nor, thereby, many other mens unrests Occasion they alone. |
▪ II. † unˈrest, v. Obs.
[un-2 3.]
trans. To disturb, trouble.
| 1382 Wyclif 1 Sam. xxvi. 14 Who art thou that criest, and vnrestist the kyng? c 1430 Life St. Kath. (1884) 49 A Cyte..whom noon aduersite troubleth..ne noon heuynesse vnresteth. c 1440 Pallad. on Husb. vi. 174 Good is hem to sle, For they the swarm vnrestith. |