valuelessadj.

1610 R. Tofte tr. N. de Montreux Honours Acad. i. 10 Her cherrie lips, did closely hide, right Orient Pearle of Inde..From which Percullis valueles, a pleasing sent did come.

1820 P. B. Shelley Prometheus Unbound iv. i. 137 Infinite mine of adamant and gold, Valueless stones, and unimagined gems.

a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) iii. i. 27 You haue beguil'd me with a counterfeit Resembling Maiesty, which being touch'd and tride, Proues valuelesse . View more context for this quotation

1684 Foxe's Actes & Monuments (ed. 9) III. 102/1 The Sentence..might not be found faulty and valueless [earlier edd. valureless].

1758 Copy Mem., for Thomas Loutit 1 At the Defender's accepting the valueless Bill libelled on, for 157l. 14s. Scots,..the said Andrew Ross, to whom that Bil was drawn payable to, faithfully promised, that they, or he, should satisfy the Defender.

1782 F. Burney Cecilia IV. vii. vi. 79 One single obstacle has power to render them valueless.

1819 W. Scott Legend of Montrose vi, in Tales of my Landlord 3rd Ser. III. 280 Take them, therefore—they are to me valueless trinkets.

1848 W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair lxvii. 623 It was found that all his property..was represented by valueless shares in different bubble companies.

1871 E. A. Freeman Hist. Ess. 1st Ser. ix. 262 Like all chronicles of the kind, it is valueless alike for prophecy and for early history.

1921 E. Marshall Heart of Little Shikara in B. Williams O. Henry Prize Stories of 1921 (1922) 2 He was almost valueless as a herder of buffalo.

1954 J. Cheever Jrnls. (1991) 47 On the valueless land north of the ship canal some children, dressed like aviators, are burning a Christmas tree.

2006 M. W. Jackson Harmonious Triads 314 Certain ingenious authorities..have essayed to formulate laws and lay down rules, only to find them..utterly valueless in practice.

1963 J. M. Bradbury Renaissance in South vi. 137 Both of these unpleasant ironic novels offer portraits of America's newest cynically valueless generation.

1992 World Monitor June 4/2 Can a totally corrupt and valueless society somehow discover the spirit to transform itself?

2004 University Wire (Nexis) 6 July If Americans are truly finding the portrayal of valueless criminals as ideals of sexiness and manliness, there is something very wrong with what U.S. society is idealizing right now.

1830 W. Sewell Hora Philogica 6 Another advantage is its [paper money's] perfect intrinsic valuelessness.

1881 A. B. Bruce Chief End Revel. iv. 189 The Spinozan doctrine as to the valuelessness of miracles for the purpose of revealing God.

1956 P. Knaplund Britain 38 This occupation..sent the German mark—already on the skids—into the abyss of absolute valuelessness.

2008 Sunday Herald Sun (Melbourne) (Nexis) 16 Mar. 16 Research showed young people were suffering greater levels of depression, uncertainty and valuelessness.