unlooked for

unlooked for

English

Alternative forms

• unlooked-for

Etymology

un- + looked for + -ed.

Adjective

unlooked for (comparative more unlooked for, superlative most unlooked for)

1. Not expected or anticipated; unforeseen.
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene 3]:

     A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege,
     And all unlook’d for from your highness’ mouth:

   • 1865, Edward Hayes Plumptre (translator), Philoctetes in The Tragedies of Sophocles, London: Isbister, Appendix, page 495,

     And now he perisheth

     With this unlooked for, undeservèd death:

   • 1906, Charles G. D. Roberts, The Heart That Knows, Boston: L. C. Page, Chapter 21,

     The attack was so utterly unlooked for, and delivered with such force, moreover, from the advantage of the step, that Tommy Coxen was knocked clean over, falling on his back with Seth on top of him.

   • 2002, Paul Brown, “Pesticide fear for fruit eaters,” The Guardian, 20 June, 2002,

     Strawberries and cream at Wimbledon next week could have an unlooked-for extra ingredient—an illegal pesticide.

2. Not looked for, not searched for.
   • c. 1590 (date written)​, G[eorge] P[eele], The Old Wiues Tale. […], London: […] Iohn Danter, for Raph Hancocke, and Iohn Hardie, […], published 1595, OCLC 1154964007, [lines 290-292]:

     […] send them to the Well for the water of life: there shall they finde their fortunes unlooked for […]

   • 1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edlin, […]; W[illiam] Mears, […]; J. Brotherton, […]; C. King, and J. Stags, […], published 1722, OCLC 745118774, page 277:

     This was an Adventure indeed unlook’d for, and perfectly undesign’d by me; tho’ I was not so past the Merry part of Life, as to forget how to behave, when a Fop so blinded by his Appetite should not know an old Woman from a young […]

Synonyms

• (not expected): unanticipated, unexpected, unforeseen
• (not looked for): unsought

Related terms

• unlooked