unmarriedadj.n.

1423 Deed (Public Rec. Office) A.5950 (MED) Yf..þe foresaide heir dee byfore þt he come to is fulle age vn mariet..I wol þt þe saide William haue þe warde of haue þe londes.

?a1425 (c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 136 Wommen þat ben vnmaryed þei han tokenes on hire hedes.

a1450 (c1410) H. Lovelich Hist. Holy Grail lv. l. 50 Wedded weren..Alle his bretheryn Except On..that tho was vn-Maryed.

a1540 R. Barnes Wks. (1573) 364/2 This thing dyd Paphnutius, though that hee hym selfe was vnmaryed.

1591 in F. Collins Wills & Admin. Knaresborough Court Rolls (1902) I. 187 All my children bothe maryed and unmaried.

1612 F. Bacon Ess. (new ed.) 24 Vnmarried men are best frendes.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Winter's Tale (1623) iv. iv. 123 Pale Prime-roses, That dye vnmarried, ere they can behold Bright Phœbus in his strength. View more context for this quotation

1653 H. Cogan tr. Diodorus Siculus Hist. iv. xxii. 152 He lived all his life time unmarried.

?1768–9 Encycl. Brit. (1771) I. 651/2 [The insect] flies from flower to flower till it arrives at the unmarried female.

1779 Mirror No. 12 The two eldest of my unmarried daughters.

1834 Duke of Wellington Let. 24 Oct. in Lett. to Miss J. (1889) 12 The Duke is not in the habit of visiting young unmarried ladies.

1890 Oölogist May 83/2 These mating frolics are carried on almost entirely by the young ‘unmarried’ birds of the previous year.

1933 D. C. Peel Life's Enchanted Cup i. 9 People did not look upon unmarried mothers with so lenient an eye as they came to do during the war.

1985 Seasons 25 i. 25/2 Netters will not take puffins with food in their mouths, since these are nesting birds, and instead look for 'unmarried' birds, which spend their time at the top of the cliffs.

2010 N.Y. Times Mag. 18 Apr. 47/1 Married people, on average, appear to be healthier and live longer than unmarried people.

1536 R. Taverner tr. P. Melanchthon Confessyon Fayth Germaynes f. 27^v In these thynges is the true perfection & true honour of god, and nat in the vnmaried lyfe, or in beggynge, or in vile & fylthy cotes.

1549 T. Hoby tr. M. Bucer Gratulation sig. Biiii^v To entreat of more at large by the opinyons of holy fathers, y^e place concerning the vnmaryed state of preestes & professors of solitarines.

1633 Bp. J. Hall Plaine Explic. Hard Texts ii. 213 Whether..to keepe them at home, in an unmarried estate, or place them forth in wedlocke.

1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. at Celibacy Single life; unmarried state.

1802 Lady's Monthly Museum Apr. 249 He formed the resolution of leading an unmarried life; and, though his disposition was calculated for the enjoyment of domestic happiness, he publicly declared his intention was never to take a wife.

1885 Jrnl. Speculative Philos. 29 163 As marriages [in Japan] take place rather early and without the previous choice of the parties themselves, the few celebrated cases of strong unmarried love have been with inmates of brothels.

1930 R. Lehmann Note in Music iv. 157 He carried on the splendid tradition of unmarried fatherhood.

1980 ‘C. Fremlin’ With no Crying i. 6 Friends..passionately defending her right to unmarried motherhood.

2008 Daily Tel. 4 June 26/1 So pleased are we with our unmarried, childless lives that we've created a whole new breed of woman—the Freemale.

1557 Bible (Whittingham) 1 Cor. vii. 8 I say vnto the vnmaried, and widowes, it is good [etc.].

a1625 F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Knight of Malta v. i, in Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Mmmmm2^v/2 Husband, wife, There is some holy mystery in those names That sure the unmarried cannot understand.

1728 E. Haywood tr. M.-A.. de Gomez Belle Assemblée (new ed.) II. 147 Neither did the Night want its Charms both to the married and the unmarried.

1871 A. Meadows Man. Midwifery (ed. 2) ii. i. 59 In the case of the unmarried, he may..cast a slur upon a spotless character.

1967 Time 7 Apr. 20 The more mature of the unmarried in the Now Generation say that, far from promoting promiscuity, the pills impose a sense of responsibility.

2008 Christianity Today June 40/2 Why doesn't Paul advise the unmarried in Corinth to seek marriage?

1819 Metropolis (ed. 2) I. 71 We had a very bad turn out of British females, mostly dowagers and elderly unmarrieds.

1916 Sunday Times (Perth, Austral.) 9 Jan. 7/1 (headline) Compulsory service. Unmarrieds first.

1960 Marriage & Family Living 22 99/2 The literature reveals a conspicuous lack of research concerning..the marriage role expectations of young unmarrieds in particular.

2011 Observer Mag. (Nexis) 7 Aug. 56 Virginia Woolf and Rupert Brooke scandalised by going for nude skinny-dips at a time when many unmarrieds had chaperones for activities when clothed.