sonlessadj.

a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Gen. xxvii. 45 Whi schal Y be maad soneles of euer eithir sone [L. cur utroque orbabor filio] in o dai?

a1500 (c1425) Andrew of Wyntoun Oryg. Cron. Scotl. (Nero) vii. l. 132 Sa mony lordis deit sonles, And mony be richt lyne deit ayrles.

1587 T. Hughes Certaine Deuises v. i. 43 What ruth, (ah,) rent the wofull Fathers hart, That sawe himselfe thus made a Sonnelesse Sire?

1611 T. Heywood Golden Age ii. sig. C4^v Thus melancholy Saturne hath suruiuing Three Noble sonnes..And yet himselfe thinks sonne-lesse.

a1652 R. Brome Love-sick Court i. i. 94 in Five New Playes (1659) If the sonless King Yet has a daughter, and he match her in His life time to a husband that is noble, He stands immediate heir unto the Crown.

1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison I. xxxix. 291 Many fatherless, brotherless, sonless families.

1782 J. Scott Poet. Wks. 150 The widow'd wife's, the sonless mother's calls; And infant Rajah's bleeding forms shall rise, And lift to you their supplicating eyes.

1832 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 31 166 The good old king, whom he has made sonless.

1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People (1881) I. 150 No baron if he was sonless could give a husband to his daughter save with his lord's consent.

1917 Times Lit. Suppl. 3 May 212/3 He returned at last, wifeless and sonless, a prematurely old man.

1955 J. C. Ewers Horse in Blackfoot Indian Culture (U.S. Bureau Amer. Ethnol. Bull. No. 159) 37 Owners of large herds, or owners of small herds who were sonless, commonly adopted orphan boys to care for their horses.

2013 B. A. Elman Civil Exam. & Meritocracy in Late Imperial China v. 174 Wang Yangming's father..stayed with a wealthy family whose master was sonless.