a. [f. VALUE sb.]
1. Destitute of value; having no value.
1595. Shaks., John, III. i. 101. You haue beguil’d me with a counterfeit Resembling Maiesty, which being touch’d and tride, Proues valuelesse.
1684. Foxe’s A. & M., III. 102/1. The Sentence … might not be found faulty and valueless [earlier edd. valureless].
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, VII. vi. One single obstacle has power to render them valueless.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, vi. Take them, therefore—they are to me valueless trinkets.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, lxvii. It was found that all his property … was represented by valueless shares in different bubble companies.
1871. Freeman, Hist. Ess., Ser. I. ix. 262. Like all chronicles of the kind, it is valueless alike for prophecy and for early history.
2. Priceless, invaluable. rare–1.
1820. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., IV. 281. Infinite mines of adamant and gold, Valueless stones, and unimagined gems.
Hence Valuelessness.
1838. Lond. & Westm. Rev., XXIX. 58. The valuelessness of all prior statistics of crime.
1881. Bruce, Chief End Revelation, iv. 189. The Spinozan doctrine as to the valuelessness of miracles for the purpose of revealing God.
