meritlessadj.

1596 A. Copley Fig for Fortune Ded. sig. A3 Though meane and merit-lesse the Muse may seeme To your aduice..yet well I hope the matter will redeeme that fraile default.

1605 M. Drayton Poems sig. Ee8 Esteeming titles meritlesse and nought.

1630 J. Taylor Wks. i. 40 I am altogether meritlesse of any good.

1786 Francis the Philanthropist I. 217 Titles, too often right honourable only in the herald's book and the meritless patent of creation.

1838 Southern Literary Messenger 4 384/1 Oh, do not give this ring so dear To one so meritless as me.

1891 Athenæum 1 Aug. 154/3 The volume is, in fact, as meritless as such volumes often are.

1931 Amer. Lit. 2 340 The result was a meritless version in which the excellent qualities of Voss's story were lost.

1990 Callaloo 13 806 What formerly had seemed to me a penance for the horrors of bondage and the sin of meritless privilege became for me the study of a paradigm of citizenship.

1894 Southern Reporter 13 744/1 The contention that article 739 only applies to the ‘debtor’..is without force... Equally meritless is the contention that the article only applies to injunctions without bond.

1907 Northwestern Reporter 110 979/2 Persons who, when injured by their own fault, assert meritless claims for damage.

1953 Court-martial Rep. 10 350 We also consider other assignments of error in connection with the law officer's refusal to give certain requested instructions relating to the sanity issue meritless.

1992 Accountancy (BNC) Oct. 25 Americans regard the contingent fee system as a better substitute for legal aid, and in many cases it is, but it does encourage meritless suits.