A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 2002 (DOST Vol. XI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Uncessant, adj. Also: unceasant, wncessant. [e.m.E. vnceassaunt (1548), vncessant (1583).]
1. Incessant, unceasing; continual, persistent.(a) 1563 Ferg. Tracts 5.
Driuen thereunto by the vncessant requeist of some zealous persones c1590 Fowler I 158/12.
In that face (from which doth ay ensewe The streaming course of my vnceasant paynes) 1621 Melrose P. 401.
Oure eirnist and vncessant prayeris … for [etc.] 1644 Baillie II 132.
The wayes of the Court are desperatelie irritative … the plottings are uncessant(b) 1643 Acts VI i 10/1.
What may be … expected … from thair immortall haitreid and wncessant working
2. Of a person: That persists continually (in or to do something).a1658 Durham Subtile Self (1723) 54.
[Self] proves restless, and makes the man whom it sweys, restless, and uncessant in his way 1680 Aberd. Council Lett. VI 213.
And for my part I shall be uncessant to do all things that ly in me
