a. [f. FLAVOUR sb. + -LESS.] Without flavor.
1730–6. in Bailey (folio).
1775. in Ash.
1871. M. Collins, Mrq. & Merch., I. viii. 264. [He] sat disconsolately down to the ordinary terminus meal, flavourless soup, an over-roasted joint, sherry full of fire.
1883. Century Mag., XXVI. Oct., 813/1. The nuts are not very good, being flavorless in comparison with those grown in Europe.
b. fig. (cf. FLAVOUR sb. 3).
1861. J. G. Holland, Lessons in Life, iii. 45. They glory in a life within and before them, by the side of which the life of childhood is as flavorless and frivolous as that of a fly.
1883. Froude, Short Stud., Ser. IV. ii. 184. To the many they [works of true genius] seem flavourless and colourless, deficient in all the qualities which for the moment are most admired.
Hence Flavorlessness, the state or condition of being without flavor; in quot. fig.
1865. Pall Mall G., 23 Sept. 3/1. Something of flavourlessness … must mark a man who can represent a composite public opinion.
