a. [f. CHILD sb. + -LESS.] Having no child or children; without offspring.

1

c. 1200.  Ormin, 2312. Þatt wif þatt haffde ben Aȝȝ childlæs.

2

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 2591. Sare was childeles.

3

1535.  Coverdale, 1 Sam. xv. 33. Like as thy swerde hath made wemen childlesse.

4

1631.  Gouge, God’s Arrows, I. § 71. 119. By it, parents … have beene soone made childlesse.

5

a. 1721.  Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), trans. Verg. Georg., IV. (L.). The sad nightingale, when childless made.

6

1861.  Geo. Eliot, Silas M., 7. Being a childless widower.

7