a. [f. WORD sb. + -LESS.]
1. Inexpressible in words; unspeakable, unutterable. Obs. or merged in 2.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 113. Wordles song is þe herte michele blisse, þe heo haueð of heuenliche ðinge, and ne mai þeroffe be stille ne mid worde hem atellen.
1647. Trapp, Comm. 1 Cor. xv. 51 (1656), 701. This, likely was one of those wordless words [ἄρρητα ῥήματα: 1611 unspeakable words] that Paul heard in his rapture, 2 Cor. 12. 4.
1683. E. Hooker, Pref. Pordage’s Mystic Div., 66. Hee was caught up into the third Heaven … where Hee heard wordless Words (so the Græc most emphaticly) Words unutterabl, unexpressibl.
2. Not expressed in words; unspoken, unuttered.
a. 1500. Chaucer’s Dreme, 889. So thought I … That wordlesse answere in no toun Was tane for obligacioun.
1633. P. Fletcher, Elisa, II. iv. So sat she joylesse down in wordlesse grief complaining.
1820. Byron, Juan, III. lviii. The stern,… deep, and wordless ire Of a strong human heart.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., II. III. 189. Some wordless prayer of agony.
1871. Tylor, Prim. Cult., I. viii. 270. The deaf-and-dumb … work out … such analogies … in their wordless thought.
1884. ‘Edna Lyall,’ We Two, xix. Love of the deepest sort is wordless.
3. Not uttering a word; not speaking, silent, speechless. Also transf. of action or feeling (cf. 2).
a. 1500. Chaucer’s Dreme, 516. Wordlesse he was, and semed sicke.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 112. Her ioie with heaued-vp hand she doth expresse, And wordlesse so greetes heauen for his successe.
1852. Bailey, Festus (ed. 5), 522. She, wordless, went, But looked her thanks.
1881. Christina Rossetti, Later Life, iii. Poems (1904), 298. Our wordless tearless numbness of distress.
1890. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 8 Feb., 300/2. The patient was quite speechless, or, at least, wordless.
1904. G. Watson, Sunshine & Sentim., 188. Then the flood-gates of her speech were opened, and she let loose such a torrent of words, speaking so quickly and gesticulating with so much passion, that I was unable to follow her, and stood dumfounded and wordless, while she lashed me with her small but unmerciful tongue.
b. Lacking the faculty or power of speech.
1648. J. Quarles, Fons Lachrym., 52. The wordless tongues of thirsty children cleave To their unliquid mouths.
1846. Chambers’s Jrnl., 16 May, 312/2, article title. A Word for the Wordless.
c. Lacking words for expression.
1881. E. F. Poynter, Among the Hills, I. 282. Her mind was too uncultivated, too wordless.
1896. Howells, Impressions & Exp., 104. The innocence of wordless infancy.
4. Not accompanied by words; (of a play) acted without words.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. ii. II. Babylon, 333. The winged quiers,… Their sounds want sense; their notes are word-lesse still.
1855. Bailey, Mystic, 137. No wordless murmurs of expectant joy.
1882. J. Hawthorne, Fort. Fool, xxx. The little wordless song which his … mother had sung.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 9 Jan., 3/2. The history of wordless plays on the modern London stage.
1922. G. K. Chesterton, Man who knew too much, 258. The man still holding the sword cast it down with a wordless sound more shocking than a curse.
Hence Wordlessly adv., Wordlessness.
1852. Bailey, Festus (ed. 5), 250. The eagle they petitioned to preside,… The bird of curvéd beak and radiant eye Bowed wordlessly, and swept down from the sky.
1891. Ménie Muriel Dowie, Girl in Karp., xiii. 178. We were left … wordlessly grateful.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 8 June, 3/1. The momentary wordlessness that is certain to fall occasionally to the lot of everyone.
