unsafety

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English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From un- +‎ safety.

Noun[edit]

unsafety (uncountable)

  1. Lack of safety; insecurity.
    • 1613, Francis Bacon, “A.D. 1613, July–December. Ætat. 53. The Charge of Sir Francis Bacon, Knight, His Majesty’s Attorney-General, Touching Duels; [].”, in James Spedding, editor, The Works of Francis Bacon, []: The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon [], volume IV, London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, published 1858, →OCLC, page 400:
      [When] private men begin once to presume to give law to themselves, and to right their own wrongs, no man can foresee the dangers and inconveniences that may arise and multiply thereupon. It may cause sudden storms in Court, to the disturbance of his Majesty, and unsafety of his person.
      The spelling has been modernized.
    • 2013, John Lancaster, “When did you get hooked?”, in London Review of Books, volume 35, number 7:
      This sense of unsafety and instability is at the heart of the books.

Etymology 2[edit]

From un- +‎ safety.

Verb[edit]

unsafety (third-person singular simple present unsafeties, present participle unsafetying, simple past and past participle unsafetied)

  1. To remove the safety on a device, such as a weapon.
    • 2010, A Lincoln Rhyme eBook Boxed Set: Coffin Dancer, The Empty Chair, The Stone Monkey[1], page 622:
      Nathan had been lying; he'd never unsafetied the rifle.
Antonyms[edit]