unespied

English

Etymology

From Middle English unespied, onespied, unaspied, unaspyed, equivalent to un- +‎ espied.

Adjective

unespied (not comparable)

1. Not espied or having been espied; unseen, unnoticed.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 401:

     So did ſhe ſteale his heedeleſſe hart away, / And ioyd his loue in ſecret vneſpyde.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 395–401:

     Then from his loftie ſtand on that high Tree / Down he alights among the ſportful Herd / Of thoſe fourfooted kindes, himſelf now one, / Now other, as thir ſhape ſervd beſt his end / Neerer to view his prey, and uneſpi’d / To mark what of thir ſtate he more might learn / By word or action markt: […].

   • 1667 March 12 (first performance), John Dryden, “Prologue”, in Secret-Love, or The Maiden-Queen: […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], published 1669, →OCLC, stanza IV:

     Plays are like Towns, which how e're fortify'd / By Engineers, have still ſome weaker ſide / By the o're-ſeen Defendant uneſpy'd.

   • 1888, John Jewel, The Apology of the Church of England‎^[1]:

     Think they their sleights are not already perceived, and that they can walk now unespied, as though they had Gyges' ring, to go invisibly by, upon their finger?

   • 1910, Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, Raphael Holinshed, Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series)‎^[2]:

     The queen's majesty then living, being departed from his presence the next way toward her lodging, he following soon after happened to find her garter, which slacked by chance and so fell from her leg, unespied in the throng by such as attended upon her.