unfledged

UK /ˈʌnflɛd͡ʒd/ US /ˌʌnˈflɛd͡ʒd/
adj 4

Definitions

adj

1

Not having feathers.

Ambition is firſt Miniſter of State; / Love's but a ſecond in the Cabinet; / nor can he feather there his unfledg'd Shaft / But from Ambition's VVing: […]

This knave, […] shoes horses better than e'er a man betwixt us and Iceland; and so he gives up his practice on the bipeds, the two-legged and unfledged species, called mankind, and betakes him entirely to shoeing of horses.

2

Not having feathers.

[W]e poore vnfledg'd / Haue never vving'd from vievv o' th'neſt; nor knovves^([sic – meaning know]) not / VVhat Ayre's from home.

[T]his ſuperannuated Beldame gapes for Flattery, like a Neſt of unfledged Crovvs for Food; and vvith them too, gulps dovvn every Thing that's offer'd her—no matter hovv Coarſe; […]

3

Of a person: not yet fully grown or mature; lacking experience, like a novice or tyro; immature, inexperienced; hence, of or relating to youth.

But do not dull the palme vvith entertaine, / Of euery nevv vnfledg'd courage, […]

Temptations haue ſince then been born to's: for / In thoſe vnfledg'd dayes, vvas my VVife a Girle; / Your precious ſelfe had then not croſs'd the eyes / Of my young Play-fellovv.

4

Of a thing: not yet fully developed; imperfect, incomplete, unfinished.

Beſides, it is not poſſible to give a young perſon a juſt vievv of life; he muſt have ſtruggled vvith his ovvn paſſions before he can eſtimate the force of the temptation vvhich betrayed his brother into vice. Thoſe vvho are entering life, and those vvho are departing, ſee the vvorld from ſuch very different points of vievv, that they can ſeldom think alike, unleſs the unfledged reaſon of the former never attempted a ſolitary flight.

Yet they who watch your God-compelled return / May see your happy perihelion burn / Where the calm sun his unfledged planets broods.

Your note

not saved
0 chars