a. [f. STATE sb. + -LESS.]

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  a.  Without a state or political community. b. Destitute of state or ceremonial dignity.

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  † Stateless state: a state not worthy of the name.

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1609.  F. Grevil, Mustapha, V. iij. What soule then … Would hold a life of such a statelesse State.

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1611.  Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VII. xl. § 5. 346. The Northumbrians expulsing their statelesse Hericus … so pacified the King, that [etc.].

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1638.  Drumm. of Hawth., Irene, Wks. (1711), 169. Cast not your selves into a voluntary Servitude; turn not your selves into a stateless State.

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1843.  D. Jerrold, Punch’s Lett., Ded., Wks. 1864, III. 450. Ye who have … with kindly conjurations given state to stateless Kings.

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1902.  B. Kidd, Princ. Western Civilis., x. 352. In the section of which England is the centre we catch sight … of a conception round which a practical system of world-politics … is actually slowly beginning to centre; namely, the ideal of a stateless competition of all the individuals of every land.

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