lovelessadj.

c1330 in R. H. Robbins Hist. Poems 14th & 15th Cent. (1959) 141 For frend is fo, þe lond is loueles.

c1390 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Vernon) (1867) A. v. l. 98 Þus I liue loueles [like] A luþer dogge.

a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) ii. 2961 Envie, which is loveles, And Pride, which is lawles.

a1500 (a1400) Ipomedon (Chetham) 8701 ‘Yes, I am loveles,’ quod Imayne, ‘Be oughte, that I can see!’

1509 A. Barclay Brant's Shyp of Folys (Pynson) f. lxxviii A lorde or state whom many men doth drede With loueles fere.

1599 W. Shakespeare et al. Passionate Pilgrime (new ed.) sig. C4 Long was the combat doubtfull, that loue with loue did fight To leaue the maister louelesse, or kill the gallant knight.

1612 T. Shelton tr. M. de Cervantes Don-Quixote: Pt. 1 i. i. 7 The Knight errant that is louelesse, resembles a tree that wants leaues and fruit.

1668 T. Jordan Money is Asse iv. iii. 33 Think me not loveless for my easie fear.

1746 A. Pope Verses upon M—— 3 From Loveless Youth to unrespected Age, No Passion gratify'd except her Rage.

1781 S. J. Pratt Fair Circassian iv. ii. 46 A life of loveless perfidy.

1825 S. T. Coleridge Aids Refl. 186 The anxiety to be admired is a loveless passion.

1877 E. Dowden Shakspere (Macmillan Lit. Primers) vi. §8. 79 An absolute cynic, loveless and alone.

1901 H. Black Culture & Restraint xii. 372 A loveless saint thus becomes a contradiction in terms.

1956 N. Algren Walk on Wild Side i. 52 He went to work on the windows—loveless, shoeless, choklut-pieless.

2005 Age (Melbourne) 29 Jan. (Review section) 4/2 A cynic who decides, at the age of 35, to leave his loveless marriage and move into a retirement home for the elderly.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 432 These [Tortoises] are ilfavored to see to, and yet as louelesse as they be, they are not without some medicinable vertues.

1794 W. Farquhar Poems Several Occasions iii. 106 Nature's doom..shap'd him of unwieldy loveless form, With gummy legs.

1981 Economist 8 Aug. 73/3 North Point is one of Hongkong's more loveless districts.

1616 J. Lane Contin. Squire's Tale x. 189 Was never love more lovelesselie requitted.

a1824 Ld. Byron Stanzas to a Hindoo Air in Wks. (1833) XIV. 357 How the long night flags lovelessly and slowly.

1909 Jrnl. Hellenic Stud. 29 143 He..acknowledges only a marriage effected lovelessly and prosaically enough at Antioch.

1999 Evening Standard (Nexis) 16 Feb. 22 To eat more lovelessly prepared Italian stodge in more dismal surroundings, you would have to go a very long way indeed.

1852 F. W. Robertson Serm. 2nd Ser. 167 Men of withered affections excuse their lovelessness by talking largely of the affection due to God.

1891 F. Paget Spirit of Discipline (ed. 2) 214 The mysterious terror of everlasting lovelessness is seizing on his heart.

1925 J. H. Leuba Psychol. Relig. Mysticism iv. 60 He realized that the main cause of his disquiet was his lovelessness.

1994 H. Bloom Western Canon iii. xiii. 315 If there is expiation, it is..for having abandoned the child to others and to much initial lovelessness.