Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not led; without guidance; hence, in command of one's faculties.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Not led; without guidance or leadership.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

un- +‎ led

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Examples

  • He had learned to go, unled, straight to his throne, without wandering off to speak to some chance person who had caught his eye; to keep his voice down so that he was seen, but not heard to speak, enabling Meleager beside him to proclaim suitable replies.

    Funeral Games Renault, Mary, 1905-1983 1981

  • When I released him from the drag rope, he gave a great sigh and footed slowly forward, unled or urged, his head hanging a little.

    The Crystal Gryphon Norton, Andre 1972

  • A morbid, gloomy man, untaught, unled, left to feed his soul in grossness and crime, and hard, grinding labor.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 42, April, 1861 Various

  • And expect that we are to remain quietly unled, and in a composed manner perish of starvation?

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 333, July 1843 Various

  • Yet not unled, but shepherded by one they may not see—

    Uxbridge Road Mrs. Stuart Moore 1917

  • The shape was still holding me up and César walked on, unled and sure-footed.

    The Phantom of the Opera 1911

  • Even the second project, which was unled, uninspired, unnational, and almost unconscious, and which began and continued as though in obedience to some irresistible and unchangeable natural and economic law, assumed different shapes and semblances, as it blended or refused to blend with the patriotic projects of the idealists.

    The Story of Newfoundland Frederick Edwin Smith Birkenhead 1901

  • Nation's fate we are ungoverned and unled, and to all appearance we are content to be so, and the leader-writers trained in the tradition of respectable formalism interpret the Nation's apathy as fortitude.

    Lessons of the War Being Comments from Week to Week to the Relief of Ladysmith Spenser Wilkinson 1895

  • The merchant went his ways, still followed by an unmuzzled unled dog.

    Home Life in Germany Alfred Sidgwick 1894

  • The pack horse, unled, but obedient to his training, followed close after.

    The Great Sioux Trail A Story of Mountain and Plain 1890

Comments

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  • In a legal context (rare): said of a junior barrister acting in a case on their own, that is not led by a QC.

    July 29, 2010