a. [f. LOVE sb. + -LESS.]
1. Having no love; a. not feeling love; b. not loved.
1311[?]. Pol. Songs (1839), 255. For frend is fo, the lond is loveles.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. V. 98. Thus I liue loueles lyk a luther dogge.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 259. Envie, which is loveles, And Pride, which is lawles. Ibid., III. 362. Sche which deide gulteles For love, and yit was loveles.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 72. A lorde or state whom many men doth drede With loueles feare.
1599. Shaks., etc., Pass. Pilgr., xv. Long was the combat doubtfull, that loue with loue did fight To leave the master louelesse, or kill the gallant knight.
1612. Shelton, Quix., I. i. (1620), 7. The Knight Errant that is louelesse, resembles a tree that wants leaues and fruit.
1735. Pope, Ep. Lady, 125. From loveless youth to unrespected age No Passion gratify’d except her Rage.
1825. Coleridge, Aids Refl. (1848), I. 149. The anxiety to be admired is a loveless passion.
1877. Dowden, Shaks. Prim., vi. § 8. 79. An absolute cynic, loveless and alone. Ibid., 80. The loveless solitude, haunted by terrible visions of his victims.
1901. H. Black, Culture & Restr., xii. 372. A loveless saint thus becomes a contradiction in terms.
† 2. Unlovely. Obs.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 432. These [Tortoises] are ilfavored to see to, and yet as louelesse as they be, they are not without some medicinable vertues.
Hence Lovelessly adv., Lovelessness.
1616. J. Lane, Contn. Sqr.’s T., X. 189. Was never love more lovelesselie requitted.
1823. Byron, Stanzas to a Hindoo Air. How the long night flags lovelessly and slowly.
1852. Robertson, Serm., Ser. II. 167. Men of withered affections excuse their lovelessness by talking largely of the affection due to God.
1891. F. Paget, Spirit Discipl. (ed. 2), 214. The mysterious terror of everlasting lovelessness is seizing on his heart.
