a. [f. FORTUNE sb. + -LESS.] Without (good) fortune, luckless, unfortunate. Also, destitute of a ‘fortune’ or portion.
1591. Spenser, M. Hubberd, 99.
| For to wexe olde at home in idlenesse, | |
| Is disaduentrous, and quite fortunelesse. | |
| Ibid. (1596), F. Q., IV. viii. 27. | |
| And manly limbs endur’d with litle care | |
| Against all hard mishaps and fortunelesse misfare. |
1669. Raleigh’s Troub., in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793), 227. Being a person not full twenty years old, left friendless and fortuneless.
1836. Fraser’s Mag., XIII. March, 314/1. There are so many fine, flaunting, fortuneless, over-educated girls in every country in the kingdom, all anxious to marry well, and all so much ‘above themselves,’ if we may be allowed the expression.
1864. Hawthorne, Grimshawe, iv. (1891), 41. The utilitarian line of education, then almost exclusively adopted, and especially desirable for a fortuneless boy like Ned.
