a. [f. as prec. + -LESS.] Without bread; without food.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIV. 160. Beggeres aboute Midsomer bredlees þei soupe.
1733. P. Whitehead, State Dunces (R.). Plump peers, and breadless bards alike are dull.
1847. Tait’s Mag., XIV. 793. The terrible sufferings of a thousand breadless families.
1864. Athenæum, 777/1. They who, half-fed, feed the breadless…. These are Charity’s disciples.
Hence Breadlessness.
1860. Mrs. P. Byrne, Undercurr. Overl., II. 93. The crime of poverty then is thus classified; first mendicancy, or the state of ‘breadlessness’; secondly vagrancy, or the state of ‘homelessness.’
