† 1. Not to be expiated or recompensed by a ‘bote’; see BOOR sb.1 9. (Only in OE. law.)
a. 1000. in Thorpe’s Laws, I. 385 (Bosw.). Donne siʓ ðæt botleas. Ibid., I. 410. Husbryce is botleas.
[1714. Fortescue-Aland, Fortescue’s Abs. & Lim. Mon., Pref. 62. Boteless, that is, unexpiable.
1839. Keightley, Hist. Eng., I. 79. Of the crimes … some were ‘botelos’ or inexpiable, and were to be punished with death: such were treason, murder.]
† 2. Without help or remedy; incurable, remediless, helpless.
1228. in Mem. Ripon (1882), I. 52. In pœna quæ vocatur boteles.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 3984. It is a botles bale … to willne after a wif þat is a waywarde euere.
1567. Drant, Horace Sat., ii. (R.). That were a bootlesse case.
1659. Sprat, Plague Athens (1667), 5 (R.).
| They saw the City open lay, | |
| An easie and bootless prey. |
3. Void of boot or profit; to no purpose, without success; unavailing, useless, unprofitable.
1559. Myrr. Mag., Clifford, ii. All care is bootles in a cureles case.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. iii. 20. Ile follow him no more with bootlesse prayers.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., I. 77. Bootlesse problemes.
1736. Thomson, Liberty, IV. 643.
| Witness the toil, | |
| The blood of ages, bootless to secure, | |
| Beneath an Empire’s yoke, a stubborn Isle, | |
| Disputed hard, and never quite subdu’d. |
1782. Cowper, Gilpin, 189. Ah luckless speech, and bootless boast!
1869. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), III. xii. 255. A few bootless attempts at negociation.
4. quasi-adv. = BOOTLESSLY.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., lxx. As Tantalus I trauaile ay but-les.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., III. i. 36. I tell my sorrowes bootles to the stones.
1813. Scott, Trierm., III. i. Of wasted fields … The Borderers bootless may complain.
