| 释义 |
ruleless, a.|ˈruːllɪs|
Forms: 5 rewleless, 6 rew-, rulesse, 7 rulelesse, rule-less, 7, 9 ruleless.
[f. rule n. + -less.]
1. Ungoverned; lawless, unruly, unrestrained; not subject to rule or order.
1443Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 212 [The] Queene of hevene lay in a symple hous, A poore stable, mong beestys rewleless. 1556J. Heywood Spider & Fly xcii. 115 Let rewld lords rewle rewlesse losels, when they crake. 1587Mirr. Mag., Morindus x, Three yeares I ruled had this Ile Without all rule, as was my rulesse life. 1642Fuller Answ. Ferne 13 How injurious doth he..labour to make the King to his posterity, as well as rulelesse in himselfe? 1689E. Howard Caroloiades 273 Some Man, By drink made ruleless.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. ii. i. i, Man indeed..lives in this world to make rule out of the ruleless. 1858― Fredk. Gt. iii. i. (1872) I. 138 He came as the representative of law and rule; and there had been many helping themselves by a ruleless life, of late.
2. Devoid of rules, irregular.
1867Macm. Mag. Apr. 521/2 This [i.e. English] seemed an altogether ruleless and unruly language.
Hence ˈrulelessness.
1879Academy July 43/3 Its rulelessness, or want of rules that can be comprehended, is curiously illustrated here. 1969P. Anderson in Cockburn & Blackburn Student Power 222 Durkheim's account..produced the concept of anomie—the unceasing reproduction of subjective rulelessness by a society that is defined by its ensemble of objective rules. |