a. [f. ART sb. + -LESS.]
1. Devoid of art or skill: a. Unpractised, inexperienced, unskilful; unskilled, ignorant.
1589. Nashe, Anat. Absurd., 40. The artlesse tongue of a tedious dolt.
1628. Wither, Brit. Rememb., VII. 1184. Such artlesse riders, that they cannot sit them.
1747. Johnson, Plan Eng. Dict., Wks. IX. 165. The work in which I engaged is generally considered … as the proper toil of artless industry.
1847. Ld. Lindsay, Chr. Art, I. 124. The artless artists seem to have worked on, from arch to arch … without a thought … of economising their space.
b. Devoid of the fine or liberal arts; having no desire for or endeavor after artistic effect; uncultured.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, II. Proem 192. Seeking conceits to sute these Artlesse times.
1636. Ballard, in Ann. Dubrensia (1877), 35. The rugged Poem of an Art-lesse Muse.
1774. J. Bryant, Mythol., I. 46. The most dry and artless historians are in general the most authentic.
1860. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., V. IX. ii. 216. A shadowy life—artless, joyless, loveless. No devices in that darkness of the grave.
2. a. Constructed without art or skill, rude, clumsy. b. Designed without art, inartistic, crude.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, III. i. (1723), 166. That there is any thing incommodious and Artless … in the Globe.
1774. Johnson, West. Isl., Wks. X. 373. Brogues, a kind of artless shoes.
1782. Warton, Hist. Kiddington (1815), 70 (T.). Had it been a practice of the Saxons to set up these assemblages of artless and massy pillars, more specimens would have remained.
1878. Lubbock, Preh. Times, v. 141. They enclose an artless stone vault.
3. Free from art (as opposed to nature); unartificial, natural, simple.
1672. Dryden, in Shaks. C. Praise, 348. Such Artless beauty lies in Shakespears wit.
1752. Mrs. Lennox, Fem. Quix., I. I. ii. 8. Curls, which had so much the appearance of being artless, that all but her maid … imagined they were so.
1754. Sherlock, Disc. (1759), I. iv. 169. The Doctrines of the Gospel were artless and plain.
1852. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Madonna, 152. The same artless grace, the same dramatic grouping.
4. Simple-minded, sincere, guileless, ingenuous.
1714. Budgell, Spect., No. 605, ¶ 9. Imitation is a kind of artless Flattery.
1766. Wesley, Wks. (1872), III. 247. The artless people drank in every word.
1822. W. Irving, Braceb. Hall, v. 43. The delightful blushing consciousness of an artless girl.
1868. Stanley, Westm. Ab., i. 34. His artless piety and simple goodness.
