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unˈconscionable, a. (n., adv.)
[un-1 7 b, 5 b.]
1. Of persons: Having no conscience; not controlled by conscience; unscrupulous; unreasonably grasping, extortionate, harsh, etc.
1570Abp. Parker Corr. (Parker Soc.) 374 Christ's holy religion,..as it may be choked with overmuch in unconscionable men's hands, so it will fall to ground amongst beggars. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 51 Least these cunning barbers might seeme vnconscionable in asking much for their paines. 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. iii. §20 None were rich but Treasurers and Collectors, none in fauour but vnconscionable Lawyers. 1667Waterhouse Fire Lond. 31 Occupancy is judged by men unconscionable, the best title. 1681Dryden Abs. & Achit. To Rdr., You cannot be so Unconscionable, as to charge me for not Subscribing of my Name. 1708S. Centlivre Busy Body ii, Can you be so unconscionable, Madam, to let me say all these fine things to you without one single Compliment in return? 1765Sterne Tr. Shandy vii. xvii, How can that unconscionable coachman talk so much bawdy to that lean horse? 1824W. Irving T. Trav. I. 242 Sometimes the unconscionable editors will clip our paragraphs. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. i. viii, I am not so unconscionable as to think it likely. 1885‘Mrs. Alexander’ Valerie's Fate i, What an unconscionable old slave-holder!.. Why do you submit to such an imposition?
absol.1623Hall Contempl., O.T. xix. ii, The unconscionable will know no other law, but their profit, their pleasure.
b. With depreciatory terms, as an intensive.
1597Beard Theatre God's Judgem. (1612) 457 Barnabe, Vicount of Milan,..was an vnconscionable oppressor of his subjects and tenants. 1609W. M. Man in Moone (1849) 27 He is an insatiable cormorant,..a mercilesse mony-monger,.. and unconscionable extortioner. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. i. v. §30 Unconscionable Liars, though they most hurt them⁓selves, do the least harm others. 1687M. Clifford Notes Dryden ii. 7 You are therefore a strange unconscionable Thief. 1732Fielding Miser v. xviii, I am an unconscionable beggar. 1755Smollett Quix. (1803) IV. 93 Your excellency may perceive what a shameless and unconscionable rogue he is.
c. As n. An arrant rogue.
1825Knapp & Baldwin Newgate Cal. III. 496/1 One of the trading unconscionables.
2. Of actions, etc.: Showing no regard for conscience; not in accordance with what is right or reasonable.
1565J. Calfhill Answ. Martial 79 Was not thys a goodly councell then? The cause so vnlawfull?.. The order so vnconscionable? Brag, as ye please, of your Nice councell. 1586J. Hooker Hist. Irel. in Holinshed II. 106/2 Which he rather of pleasure vttered, than of anie vnconscionable meaning purposed to haue doone. 1628Wither Brit. Rememb. vi. 1251 Ev'n in our Court of Conscience, some things are Unconscionable. 1653Prynne Gospel-plea 14 It must needs be most unjust, unreasonable, unconscionable, and against the common rules of war. 1656H. Phillips Purch. Patt. (1676) 145 The errour..is so much the more unconscionable, because it gives the buyer so much less than his due. 1738A. Hill Let. to Pope 29 Aug., When I remember'd you had read it four times, I found not enough of the Poet, within me, to presume the unconscionable fifth. 1796F. Burney Camilla III. 425 So difficult was even this, in an affair so dark and unconscionable. 1828Keightley Fairy Mythol. (1850) 95 They plundered their pantries in a most unconscionable manner. 1890Spectator 19 July, St. Kevin's behaviour on a famous occasion was not quite so unconscionable as that attributed to him by Moore.
b. Unreasonably excessive.
a1586Sidney Arcadia i. xv. (1912) 99 She tooke the advauntage one daye uppon Phalantus unconscionable praysinges of her. 1598B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. i. ii, Draw your bill of charges, as unconscionable as any Guildhall verdict will give it you. 1601F. Godwin Bps. of Eng. 295 That wrongfull and vnconscionable raunsome. 1654Whitelocke Jrnl. Swed. Emb. (1772) II. 264 Such is their unconscionable exaction uppon strangers. 1671Milton Samson 1245 His Giantship is gone somewhat crestfall'n, Stalking with less unconsci'nable strides, And lower looks. 1760Sterne Tr. Shandy iii. xxxiii, What an unconscionable jointure, my dear, do we pay out of this small estate of ours! 1785Martyn Lett. Bot. x. (1794) 108 This letter not being of so unconscionable a length as the former. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xii, We are out unconscionable sums just for barkened hides and leather. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iv. I. 439 He had been, he said, a most unconscionable time dying. 1871‘Holme Lee’ Miss Barrington II. xiii. 203 He had stayed an unconscionable time—had made her quite a visitation.
c. As an intensive: Egregious, arrant.
1593Tell-Troth's N.Y. Gift (1876) 14 To blabb such vnconscionable vntrothes. 1603H. Crosse Vertues Commw. (1878) 43 Tearing out the bowelles of his brethren, with vsurie, extortion, and vnconscionable brokerie. 1650Fuller Pisgah v. i. 143 It seems not onely an ungentile harshness, but an unconscionable injustice. a1734North Exam. iii. ix. §14 (1740) 657 A due Reward of unconscionable Cheating. 1782–3W. F. Martyn Geog. Mag. I. 308 Which sum he consented to abate in favour of those who were called upon to make up the amount of this unconscionable imposition.
3. As adv. = unconscionably adv. 2.
1596Nashe Saffron Walden F ij, Tis an vnconscionable vast gorbellied Volume. 1807–8W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 272 One of Christopher's unconscionable long stories. 1847Robb Squatter Life (Bartlett), ‘That's an unconscionable slick gal of your'n,’ says I.
Add: Hence unconscionaˈbility n. (chiefly in U.S. Law) = unconscionableness n.
1918Federal Reporter (U.S.) CCXLVI. 986 The testimony of several brokers was admitted, not on the question of adequacy, but of unconscionability. 1942U.S. Supreme Court Rep. CCCXV. 299 Without specifying that it relies on the law of any particular jurisdiction, the petitioner rests its argument on an asserted general doctrine of unconscionability at common law. 1967Maine Law Rev. XIX. 81 The concept of unconscionability seems to have been lying dormant in the law. 1978R. Stevens Law & Politics 453 He warned of the dangers of treating the doctrine of unconscionability as a ‘panacea’. 1986Oxf. Jrnl. Legal Stud. VI. iii. 454 Real chaos..would flow from a legislative authorization to courts to review commercial contracts for substantive unconscionability. |