childlessadj.
/ˈtʃʌɪl(d)lᵻs/, U.S. /ˈtʃaɪl(d)lᵻs/ Having no child or children; without offspring.
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society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > kinsman or relation > parent > parenthood > [adjective] > childless
childlessc1175
daughterlessc1300
childrenlessa1387
bairnlessa1400
sonlessa1425
issueless1447
childerless1549
orb1607
unchilded1610
babyless1852
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 2312 Þatt wif þatt haffde ben Aȝȝ childlæs.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Fairf. 14) l. 2591 Sare was childeles.
a1450 (c1410) H. Lovelich Merlin (1913) II. l. 14545 (MED) Many a modir was childles Thorwh strokis of cleodas jn þat pres.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) 1 Sam. xv. 33 Like as thy swerde hath made wemen childlesse.
1631 W. Gouge Gods Three Arrowes i. §71. 119 By it, parents..have beene soone made childlesse.
a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Herts. 22 He lived and dyed Childlesse.
1684 Earl of Mulgrave tr. Virgil Georgick iv, in Misc. Poems 172 So the sad Nightingale, when Childless made..Bewails her Loss.
1797 R. Southey Poems 203 Mourning his age left childless, and his wealth Heapt for an alien.
1837 New Monthly Mag. 233 She perplexed me with..plain questions..such as whether I was married or single,—a father or childless,—a Londoner or Agrestian.
1861 ‘G. Eliot’ Silas Marner i. 16 Being a childless widower.
1909 Westm. Gaz. 20 Oct. 2/2 The estates of childless and relationless millionaires.
1953 Salisbury (Maryland) Times 27 July 6/3 Single people or childless couples who get so ecstatic about either dogs or cats that they exalt them from doghood or cathood into the status of mankind.
2008 Daily Tel. 4 June 26/1 So pleased are we with our unmarried, childless lives that we've created a whole new breed of woman—the Freemale.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.c1175