a. [f. BRIEF sb., sense 7 + -LESS.] Without a brief; (a barrister) holding no briefs, unemployed.
1824. Scott, St. Ronan’s. The broad shoulders of a briefless barrister.
1840. Marryat, Olla Podr. (1866), 267. Arthur Ansard at a briefless table.
1860. Dickens, Uncomm. Trav., xiv. A few briefless bipeds … called to the Bar by voices of deceiving spirits.
Hence Brieflessly adv., Brieflessness.
1842. Punch, III. 106. The dreary ghost of brieflessness Stalk’d up and down the room.
1864. Cornh. Mag., Dec., 682. He often has to pass long years of brieflessness.
