gracelessadj.n.

c1400 W. Langland Piers Plowman (Cambr. Dd.3.13) (1873) C. xxi. l. 479 Graselese [c1400 Huntington HM 137 May no grysliche gost glyde þer hit shadeweþ].

c1450 Jacob's Well (1900) 161 (MED) Þe peple schal be graceles, vnmyȝty in batayle, & vnstedfast in þe feyth of holy cherch.

a1500 (a1400) Awntyrs Arthure (Douce) l. 163 Now am I a graceles [c1440 Thornton grisely] gost... With lucifer in a lake loȝ am I lighte.

a1535 T. More Dialoge of Comfort (1553) ii. v. sig. F.viii^v Lette no man sinne in hope of grace.. he eyther gracelesse goe lynger on carelesse, or with a care fruitelesse, fall into dispayre.

1603 R. Knolles Gen. Hist. Turkes 256 Hee was glad..to receiue at his hipocritall hands a gracelesse blessing for his better speed.

1659 D. Pell Πελαγος 96 Hereby you do a great deal more bolster graceless fellows in their wickedness, than you are aware of.

1715 D. Defoe Family Instructor I. i. iv. 100 Even our Father and Mother themselves have been negligent, godless, and graceless.

1738 W. Warburton Divine Legation Moses I. i. vi. 82 The graceless Furniture of the Old Man with his Affections and Lusts.

1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian iv, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. II. 91 There's a minister in the Tolbooth—wha will ca' it a graceless place, now?

1853 J. B. Marsden Hist. Early Puritans (ed. 2) 305 They [sc. the pilgrim fathers] saw the graceless intruders wasting their substance in riot.

1912 Dublin Rev. Jan. 31 The wicked are seldom wholly graceless if you peep within.

1961 E. Prosser Drama & Relig. in Eng. Myst. Plays i. ii. 37 All life lost in a graceless state is wasted and must be accounted for after death.

1995 Methodist Recorder 3 Aug. 3/2 He insists on the primary requirement of loving behaviour in the use of the many gifts God has given to his Church; which otherwise are graceless.

a1413 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (Pierpont Morgan) (1881) i. l. 781 How wostow so þat þow art graceles.

c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) iii. l. 2253 (MED) O woful wrecchis..Vnhappy eke, and graceles also, Infortunat and inly wo-be-go!

1572 (a1500) Taill of Rauf Coilȝear (1882) 789 It war ane graceles gude that I war cummin to.

1579 E. Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Aug. 113 If for gracelesse griefe I die.

c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) v. l. 1690 Horestes—þat so merciles, Liche a tyraunte þat were graciles, His moder slowe.

1588 ‘M. Marprelate’ Oh read ouer D. Iohn Bridges: Epist. 31 His honor could not obtaine this small suit at your graceles hands.

1596 E. Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene v. xii. sig. Y5^v He shund his strokes, where euer they did fall, And way did giue vnto their gracelesse speed. View more context for this quotation

1658 J. Mennes & J. Smith Wit Restor'd 32 Asking grace of a graceles face.

1774 J. W. Fletcher Zelotes & Honestus Reconciled x. 102 God never remembered to show any mercy to Judas..God was a graceless God to Iscariot.

?1507 W. Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen (Rouen) in Poems (1998) I. 51 Me thoght him gracelese on to goif.

1570 B. Googe tr. T. Kirchmeyer Spirituall Husbandry i, in tr. Popish Kingdome f. 64^v Gracelesse cockle lothsome to the eye.

1638 F. Junius Painting of Ancients 37 The most ill-favoured and gracelesse Pictures most commonly wrought by them that [etc.].

1720 A. Pennecuik Streams from Helicon (ed. 2) i. 36 Giles struck him on the Breech with manly Force, His graceless baudy Buttocks hang an A—.

1796 M. G. Lewis Monk I. Pref. p. vii Of graceless form and dwarfish stature.

1823 P. Nicholson New Pract. Builder 490 Crowns, coronets, mitres, and similar graceless objects.

1884 St. James's Gaz. 26 Jan. 6/1 The composition is graceless, the colour sombre, and the handling broad.

1922 ‘R. West’ Judge i. ii. 55 The graceless embarrassment that he had shown..by purposeless rubbings of his hands and twisting of the ankles.

1970 N. Bawden Birds on Trees vii. 128 It was as if something malign worked in her,..making her clumsy and graceless so that everyone despised her!

2003 C. Berlinski Loose Lips ix. 204 An elderly Asian woman practiced a graceless but enthusiastic species of Tai Chi.

1562 in T. Stretton Marital Litigation Court of Requests (2008) 46 What greater provucacion canne there be then to gyve bowldnes to all graceles and unshamefast women to runne the lyke base yf she..shoul[d] be favored or spared.

a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) ii. iv. sig. Q1 In sooth (answered Dametas with a gracelesse skorne) the Lad may proue wel enough, if [etc.].

1642 T. Fuller Holy State v. xiv. 412 To mouth an oath with a gracelesse grace.

1715 J. Addison Spectator No. 559. ¶3 The graceless Youth, in less than a quarter of an Hour, pulled the old Gentleman by the Beard.

1796 H. Macneill Waes o' War iii. 20 Villain! wha wi' graceless folly Ruin'd her he ought to save.

1885 Manch. Examiner 10 Apr. 5/2 If graceless insults are levelled at them they are not worthy a reply.

1914 T. W. Burgess Adventures of Jerry Muskrat ii. 8 Bobby Coon is a graceless young scamp and does not always show proper respect to his neighbors.

1970 Life 11 Dec. 4/1 The latest manifestation was the graceless and unfeeling firing of six of Interior Secretary Walter Hickel's staff.

2003 J. Park Tongues of Angels 11 As young as Rob was, the seminary took him, educated him, taught him manners and how to speak well, made a man from the graceless boy.

1699 A. Boyer Royal Dict. Graceless, (that has not said Grace) Qui n'a point rendu graces.

1756 J. Graham Jrnl. 17 Aug. in E. Forbes Paul Revere & World he lived In (1942) ii. vi. 47 Brakfasted this morning with the General. But a graceless meal; never a blessing asked, nor thanks given.

1802 Monthly Mag. Jan. 482/1 I have escaped from a lonely crowd..and palled a graceless meal, which began without a thought of thanks to God, and ended with a loud and general call for the Devil.

1862 J. R. Balme Amer. States, Churches, & Slavery 368 No food was tasted by him without asking a divine blessing on it. He had no graceless meals, and performed no graceless exploits.

c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Canon's Yeoman's Tale (Ellesmere) (1875) l. 1078 O gracelees [c1410 Harl. 7334 graceles], ful blynd is thy conceite.

a1513 W. Dunbar Flyting in Poems (1998) I. 207 Our gallowis gaipis, lo, quhair ane greceles gais.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 1 (1623) v. vi. 14 Gracelesse, wilt thou deny thy Parentage. View more context for this quotation

1767 A. Murphy School for Guardians v. 85 Where is the graceless, the profligate, the abandoned!

1858 T. Carlyle Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia II. vi. vi. 99 Rejoicing to find something of a soldier in the young graceless, after all.

a1500 in Archiv f. das Studium der Neueren Sprachen (1932) 161 195 What kyngdome þat ys waryed so Þe commons dystroyed plogh & wayne Than wakeþ all þe gentyls woo For ofte the graceles ben yslayne.

1675 R. Baxter Catholick Theol. ii. vi. 124 Do the Armenians hold that the Wills of the graceless and unsanctified are freed from sinful habits?

1779 Pictures of Men, Manners & Times II. 33 He perceives the idea of the Graces to have affected the graceless, and to have produced in the outward behaviour of the most notorious debauchees the affectation of delicacy.

1874 C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David IV. Ps. xcii. 12 Contrasts the condition of the righteous with that of the graceless.

1903 Expos. Bible I. 18/1 Do not accept it as a thing fixed that you are to be one of the graceless and ungodly.

1999 J. D. Faubion in G. E. Marcus Paranoia within Reason xv. 396 So the ‘graceless’ and the ‘haunted’ often find positions as jesters, as artists, as university professors.

1862 Notes & Queries 16 Aug. 126/1 (heading) The graceless florin and the potato disease.

1894 Morning Post 10 Aug. 3/3 By a most extraordinary coincidence I yesterday received in change for half a sovereign a ‘graceless florin’... There are still specimens in circulation, albeit they must now be very rare.

1992 Times (Nexis) 15 Feb. It was much disliked at the time, being known as the ‘godless’ florin because it omitted F.D . (Fidei Defensor, defender of the faith), and the ‘graceless’ florin, because it omitted the usual Dei Gratia (by the grace of God).