unlooked for

• unlooked-for

un- + looked for + -ed.

unlooked for (comparative more unlooked for, superlative most unlooked for)

1. Not expected or anticipated; unforeseen.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act I, Scene 3,

     A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege,

     And all unlook’d for from your highness’ mouth:

   • 1865, Edward Hayes Plumptre (translator), Philoctetes in The Tragedies of Sophocles, London: Isbister, Appendix, page 495,

     And now he perisheth

     With this unlooked for, undeservèd death:

   • 1906, Charles G. D. Roberts, The Heart That Knows, Boston: L. C. Page, Chapter 21,

     The attack was so utterly unlooked for, and delivered with such force, moreover, from the advantage of the step, that Tommy Coxen was knocked clean over, falling on his back with Seth on top of him.

   • 2002, Paul Brown, “Pesticide fear for fruit eaters,” The Guardian, 20 June, 2002,

     Strawberries and cream at Wimbledon next week could have an unlooked-for extra ingredient—an illegal pesticide.

2. Not looked for, not searched for.
   • 1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, lines 290-292,

     […] send them to the Well for the water of life: there shall they finde their fortunes unlooked for […]

   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, London: W. Chetwood & T. Edling, p. 277,

     This was an Adventure indeed unlook’d for, and perfectly undesign’d by me; tho’ I was not so past the Merry part of Life, as to forget how to behave, when a Fop so blinded by his Appetite should not know an old Woman from a young […]

• (not expected): unanticipated, unexpected, unforeseen
• (not looked for): unsought

• unlooked