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unchartered

[uhn-chahr-terd]
adjective
  1. without a charter.
  2. without regulation; lawless.
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Origin of unchartered

First recorded in 1795–1805; un-1 + charter + -ed2
Can be confuseduncharted unchartered
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for unchartered

Historical Examples of unchartered

  • He gropes in darkness as he comes nearer the gates of his paradise, through an unchartered wilderness.

    In the Heart of a Fool

    William Allen White

  • On the contrary, the unchartered guilds were the moat numerous and influential.

  • I was an unchartered ship, in which no living person had an interest, drifting on the wide waste of waters.

  • In no part of the world, and at no period of time, do we find the behavior of men left to unchartered freedom.

  • Then, at the instigation of the favored ones, the politicians passed a law to suppress all unchartered banks.

British Dictionary definitions for unchartered

unchartered

adjective
  1. not authorized by charter; unregulated
  2. unauthorized, lawless, or irregular
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usage

Care should be taken not to use unchartered where uncharted is meant: uncharted (not unchartered) territory
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for unchartered

adj.

1805, from un- (1) "not" + past participle of charter.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper