a. Also 5 soneles, 6 sonnelesse, 7 -less, sonlesse. [f. SON sb. + -LESS.] Having no son; destitute of a son or sons.
1388. Wyclif, Gen. xxvii. 45. Whi schal Y be maad soneles of euer eithir sone in o dai?
1588. T. Hughes, Misfort. Arthur, V. i. (1900), 118. The wofull Fathers hart, That sawe himselfe thus made a Sonnelesse Sire.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., III. i. E 4. A sonne, That made her husbandlesse, and doth complot To make her sonlesse.
1611. Heywood, Gold. Age, II. i. C 4 a–b. Thus melancholy Saturne hath suruiuing Three Noble sonnes … And yet himselfe thinks sonne-lesse.
1753–4. Richardson, Grandison (1781), I. 291. Many fatherless, brotherless, sonless families.
1832. Blackw. Mag., XXXI. 166. The good old king, whom he has made sonless.
1874. Green, Short Hist. (1881), I. 150. No baron if he was sonless could give a husband to his daughter save with his lord’s consent.
