impudent, a. (n.)
(ˈɪmpjʊdənt)
Also 4–5 in-.
[ad. L. impudēns, impudēnt-em shameless, f. im- (im-2) + pudēns ashamed, modest, orig. pres. pple. of pudēre to make or feel ashamed. Cf. F. impudent (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm. and Godef. Compl.: but the latter has the adv. impudemment of 1461).]
† 1. Wanting in shame or modesty; shameless, unblushing, immodest; indelicate. (In quot. 1628, ‘without the means of decency’.) Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶323 Inpudent is he that for his pride hath no shame of hise synnes. 1533 Udall Floures 90 Canis (sayth Donate) is a worde that menie vse to obiect vnto suche as be impudent shameles felowes. 1579 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 61 Setting the best and impudentist face of it that I can borrowe. 1611 Bible Ecclus. xix. 2 He that cleaueth to harlots will become impudent. 1628 Hobbes Thucyd. (1822) 101 Many for want of things necessary..were forced to become impudent in the funerals of their friends. 1632 Lithgow Trav. i. 26 Their impudent Curtezans, the most lascivious harlots in the world. 1659 D. Pell Impr. Sea 76 With impudent fore-heads, and with brows rubbed on brass-pots. 1732 Gay Achilles iii, Then her bosom too is so preposterously impudent! |
2. Possessed of unblushing presumption, effrontery, or assurance; shamelessly forward, insolently disrespectful.
| 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1684) III. 493 Thou art as impudent a Fellow as I have communed withal. 1583 Fulke Defence xix. 544 You are the most impudent advoucher, I think, that ever became a writer. 1638 Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. III.) 123 Sufficient defence against the audaciousnesse of the most impudent. 1709–10 Hearne in Reliq. (1857) I. 181 Some persons were so impudent (to speak in the canting phrase) as to huzza him. 1710–11 Swift Lett. (1767) III. 125 Oh faith, you're an impudent saucy couple of sluttekins for presuming to write so soon. 1829 Lytton Devereux ii. iv, Thou art an impudent thing to jest at us. 1848 Dickens Dombey viii, Wickam is a wicked, impudent, bold-faced hussy. |
b. Of conduct, actions, etc.
| 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. i. 135 You call honorable Boldnes, impudent Sawcinesse. 1639 T. Brugis tr. Camus' Mor. Relat. 246 [She] disclosed..[his] impudent attempt against the reverence of his marriage. 1755 Young Centaur ii. Wks. 1757 IV. 134 Our impudent folly puts nature out of countenance. 1862 Marsh Eng. Lang. i. 10 An impudent fabrication of the fourteenth century. 1873 Hale In His Name vi. 64 This was the impudent reply of the largest boy of the group. |
B. n. A person of unblushing effrontery or insolence.
| 1586 T. B. tr. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1589) 404 No beast (as they say) is so shamelesse as an impudent. Ibid. 253. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. xxvii. (Arb.) 69 Defrauded of the reward, that an impudent had gotten by abuse of his merit. 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 434 Many dissembling impudents intrude themselves in this high calling of God. |