unessential

comparative more unessential · superlative most unessential

1. Not essential.

   1716, Joseph Addison, The Free-Holder, No. 39, 4 May, 1716, London: D. Midwinter and J. Tonson, p. 225, [He was] moved rather with Pity than Indignation towards the Persons of those, who differed from him in the unessential Parts of Christianity.

   3 more examples

   1676, Joseph Glanvill, Seasonable Reflections and Discourses, London: R.W. [and] H. Mortlock, p. 92, [I] have a question more to ask you on occasion of what you have told me; and that is, Whether you are to leave every Minister and Church, as soon as any thing is said that is really erroneous, in the lesser and unessential matters?

   “[…] strangeness is not in the nature of a thing, but in its relation to something extrinsic—in this case an unessential observer.”

   1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, chapter 18, in The Woodlanders […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

   But all this part of it seemed remote and unessential.

   1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 9, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN

   Synonyms: inessential, unimportant · Antonyms: essential

2. Void of essence, or real being.

   These [gates] past, if any pass, the void profound Of unessential Night receives him next Wide gaping, and with utter loss of being Threatens him,

   1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 438-441

   1 more example

   […] even before the Heavens, before those material Orbs, that now rowl over us, were call’d from the dark, and profound Abyss of unessential Nothing:

   1686, William Hall, A sermon preach'd before Her Majesty the Queen Dowager, London: William Grantham, page 7

   Synonyms: unsubstantial