unproof

English

Etymology 1

From un- (“absence or lack of”) +‎ proof.

Noun

unproof (countable and uncountable, plural unproofs)

1. Absence or lack of proof or evidence; prooflessness.
   • 1997, Kim Younglae, Broken Knowledge:

     Modern science came to our help in either way of proof or unproof.

   • 1998, Stephen David Ross, The Gift of Touch:

     Perhaps anamnesis, remembering forgetting, is another figure of untruth in truth, the unproof, the arbitrariness and unconvincingness, of every proof.

   • 2000, Mac Wellman, Infrared:

     CONSIDER what it is the inchworm measures with his ridiculous lurch-and-drag walk; he measures his way down the aeons of unproof; he measures nothing that is not a thought of God; he measures his life that it may be shared with all; [...]

2. That which is not proven.
   • 2005, Martha McCallum, The Scarlet Thread:

     It is a theory with many unproofs. It has not been demonstrated either theoretically or empirically that time and chance can explain either the universe with its high complexity or man as man.

Etymology 2

From un- +‎ proof (“resiliency, firmness”).

Verb

unproof (third-person singular simple present unproofs, present participle unproofing, simple past and past participle unproofed)

1. (transitive) To undo the proofing of; expose to the possibility of failure.
   • 2006, James Raimes, Gardening at Ginger:

     [...] but squirrels are smart; they find a way to unproof feeders.