a. [see -LESS.]
1. Without a city or cities, having no city.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 2286. Sirres, by my sothe, quod þe segge, Sitiles I hiȝt. Qwi so … How tidis it þe & tounles þi toname is callid?
1658. W. Burton, Itin. Anton., 159. Great BRITAIN must no longer incur the barbarous note, of being City-lesse in CÆSARS daies.
1872. Longf., Christus, 199. The cityless river, that flows From fountains that no one knows, Through the lake of Galilee.
† 2. nonce-use. That is no city. Obs.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., II. Irel. 86. In steed of a city it is altogether, as one saith πόλις ἄπολις, that is, A City Citylesse, or The remains of that which was a City.
