a. [f. FIRE sb. + -LESS.] Devoid of fire, without a fire.
† 1. Unlit, not flaming. Obs.
1649. Stanley, Europa, etc. 29. With hizzing firelesse Torches.
2. a. Having no fire, without a fire.
1661. Brome, Epist. to Mr. J. B., 6.
| Though I’ve no bag; that are with child with gold, | |
| And though my fireless chymnies catch the cold | |
| For want of great revenues, yet I find | |
| I’ve what’s as good as all, a sated mind. |
1775. Mad. D’Arblay, Early Diary (1889), II. 117. At this cold season, when there is no writing in a fireless room, it is by no means easy to find times for letter writing, where three or four sheets are to be filled.
1789. Wordsw., Evening Walk.
| When low-hung clouds each star of summer hide, | |
| And fireless are the valleys far and wide. |
1852. Hawthorne, Blithedale Rom., I. v. 81. I went shivering to my fireless chamber, with the miserable consciousness (which had been growing upon me for several hours past) that I had caught a tremendous cold, and should probably awaken, at the blast of the horn, a fit subject for a hospital.
b. Of a tribe: Having no knowledge of or means of procuring fire.
1865. E. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind, ix. 229. When the mention of a fireless race appears in company with a Prometheus, mythology, not history, claims it. Ibid. In the same book he has another story of a fireless people.
3. fig. Without energy, life, or animation.
1598. Sylvester, Du Barias, II. i. I. (1641), 86/1.
| The Plant is leaf-less, branch-less, void of fruit; | |
| The Beast is lust-less, sex-less, fire-less, mute. |
1656. Trapp, Comm., Matt. iii. 11. Fire is the most active of all other Elements, as having much form, little matter; and therefore the Latines call a dull dronish man, a fireless man, which God cannot away with.
