rightlessadj.

1572 A. Golding tr. H. Bullinger Confut. Popes Bull f. 65^v The Councell of Constance were of opinion that there was no promise to be kept with heretikes: They make nothing at all for the beawtifying of their most rightlesse case.

1587 J. Higgins Mirour for Magistrates (new ed.) f. 78 ^v The land and region here is oures, Wee will not Cesar to thy rightlesse hestes assent.

1605 Apol. in Willobie his Auisa (new ed.) 65 If any..continue the errour of their vnsatisfied minds they must for euer reste in the rightlesse erring.

1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage ix. iv. 837 Howsoeuer they exercise..mutuall disagreements, yet agree in like barbarous and rightlesse Rites.

1691 J. Kettlewell Duty of Allegiance v. 49/2 This right of Providence, which doth not render the Dispossessed Invader Unrighteous, is much the same for Right as the former rightless Authority, which can challenge no Obedience.

1803 Lit. Mag. & Amer. Reg. Dec. 218 The outcast of society..the poor, rightless dependant on the caprice of others.

1823 W. Scott Quentin Durward II. xii. 285 For this thou..hast deserved to be declared outlawed and fugitive, landless and rightless.

1897 F. W. Maitland Domesday Bk. & Beyond 42 One may be born to serve without being born rightless.

1966 C. Hill Cent. of Revol. iii. 26 The poor were treated as utterly rightless.

1988 Whole Earth Rev. (Nexis) 22 June 2 These are the wretched who have been defined as stateless, as personless, as suspect, as rightless.

2001 B. Perry In Name of Hate iii. 70 At the very moment when democracy and liberty were heralded, slavery sentenced blacks to a rightless existence.

1873 J. P. Lacroix tr. A. Wuttke Christian Ethics I. iii. 67 The higher the right and the might of the free citizens are placed, so much the more complete and striking becomes also the rightlessness of slaves.

1895 19th Cent. Jan. 57 It is ordinarily assumed that the social and legal position under Islam is one of extreme degradation and absolute rightlessness.

1915 A. L. Smith Christian Attitude to War 12 The only alternative to rights between nations is a condition of rightlessness, that is international anarchy.

2002 Polit. Theory 30 427 Economic and cultural injustices, in such a stark situation, are consequences of such rightlessness.