unlover-like

unlover-like (comparative more unlover-like, superlative most unlover-like)

1. Alternative form of unloverlike.
   • 1801, “Private Memoirs of Swift”, in The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick’s, Dublin. […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], page 282:

     For it was impossible to suppose that a woman of any spirit (and from some hints in the letter she seemed to have rather more than came to her share) should not highly resent such an unlover-like epistle, written in so dictatorial a style.

   • 1811, [Jane Austen], chapter III, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume III, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 61–62:

     They then talked on for a few minutes longer without her catching a syllable, when another lucky stop in Marianne’s performance brought her these words in the Colonel’s calm voice, “I am afraid it cannot take place very soon.” Astonished and shocked at so unlover-like a speech, she was almost ready to cry out, “Lord! what should hinder it?”—but checking her desire, confined herself to this silent ejaculation, “This is very strange!—sure he need not wait to be older.”

   • 1830, E[dward] L[ytton] B[ulwer], chapter VIII, in Paul Clifford, volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], page 179:

     It seems that, despite the strange, sometimes the unlover-like and fiercely selfish nature of these letters from Brandon, something of a genuine tone of passion,—perhaps their originality,—aided, no doubt, by some uttered eloquence of the writer, and some treacherous inclination on the part of the mistress, ultimately conquered; and that an union, so little likely to receive the smile of a prosperous star, was at length concluded.

   • 1880 December, [Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen], “Under the Glacier”, in Scribner’s Monthly, volume XXI, number 2, section VII, page 245, column 1:

     Maurice smiled, and with the same sense of serene benignity, wholly unlover-like, clasped her in his arms.

   • 1890, Rudyard Kipling, “The Phantom ’Rickshaw”, in The Phantom ’Rickshaw and Other Tales, Allahabad: Messrs. A. H. Wheeler & Co.; London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, Ld, […], page 19:

     I pleaded the darkness of the night as an excuse; was rebuked by Kitty for my unlover-like tardiness; and sat down.