unsuˈpported, ppl. a.
[un-1 8.]
1. Not supported by aid or assent; not backed up or corroborated.
| 1420–2 Lydg. Siege Thebes iii. 2985 Farwel wisdam..For lakke only of supportacioun. For vnsupported..Amphiorax sighen gan ful sore. 1609 Daniel Civ. Wars iii. lxxix, He..will not avouch thy fact, But let the weight of thine owne infamie Fall on thee, vnsupported, and vnbackt. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. Pref., To despaire the favourable looke of learning upon our single and unsupported endeavours. 1753 Stewart's Trial 270 Deposing to a long romantic story, in which he is altogether unsupported. 1798 S. & Ht. Lee Canterb. T. II. 393 An idle..unsupported assertion. 1812 Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1837) IX. 349 Leaving behind them unprotected and unsupported the guns of Captain M‘Donald's troop. 1854 Greenwood Haps & Mishaps 54 Yet thus far have I taken not one lonely and unsupported step. |
b. Const. by.
| 1694 Atterbury Serm. (1726) I. iii. 103 How utterly unsupported either by the Secular Arm, or Secular Wisdom! 1752 Johnson Rambler No. 194 ¶12 What can be expected from reason unsupported by fashion, splendour, or authority? 1831 T. Hope Ess. Orig. Man II. 235 This doctrine is..too unsupported by anything we see, to have had many adherents. 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 618 This statement is utterly unsupported by facts. |
† c. Not bold or confident. Obs.
| 1697 Collier Ess. Mor. Subj. i. 210 Whereas a diffident and unsupported Behaviour in a Clergyman, is often suppos'd to proceed from ignoble Qualities. |
2. Not physically supported or sustained.
| 1635 D. Person Varieties i. 33 The false-Prophet Mahomet, his Chest of Iron,..doth hang miraculously unsupported of any thing. 1681 Stair Instit. ii. xxvi. 97 Whether Convalescence can be proven otherways, then by going unsupported to Kirk and Mercat, I have seen no decision. 1707 Mortimer Husb. 106 [Peas] run upon the ground unsupported with sticks. 1813 Scott Rokeby ii. xiv, Now, like the wild-goat, must he dare An unsupported leap in air. 1862 Ansted Channel Isl. ii. xi. 288 The falling in of the unsupported roof. |
| fig. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 432 Her self, though fairest unsupported Flour, From her best prop so farr, and storm so nigh. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. 328 On the slightest touch, the unsupported fabric of their pride and power fell to the ground. |
Hence unsuˈpportedly adv.; -ness.
| 1825 Q. Rev. XXXII. 286 Mr. Bowles tells us (as insidiously, and as unsupportedly as usual) Pope was much more explicit. 1890 J. H. Stirling Philos. & Theol. xvi. 307 Contingency in the sense of unsupportedness, the powerlessness of things in themselves. |
______________________________
Add: 3. Physics. Of (the decay of) a radioactive substance: not maintained at a constant level, due to the decay of a parent nuclide.
| 1941 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. CCXXXIX. 87 It is reasonably well established that the initial steep gradient is due to the disintegration of unsupported radium. 1964 Health Physics X. 763/2 The concept that unsupported Po210 in particular organs is derived almost exclusively from internal sources is important to the study of the Po210 distribution. 1984 Lowe & Walker Reconstructing Quaternary Environments v. 224 Unsupported decay involves the transformation of a parent nuclide that is not, in itself, the product of decay. |