a. [f. LID sb. + -LESS.] Without a lid.
1522. Bury Wills (Camden), 116. A potell pewter pott ledles.
1867. G. Macdonald, Poems, 119. Lidless coffins.
1894. H. Nisbet, Bush Girl’s Rom., 138. Tea which had been boiled over the smoky logs in the lidless billies.
b. Of the eyes: Having no lids; not covered with the lids. Chiefly poet. = ‘ever-watchful.’
1796. Coleridge, Ode Departing Yr., 145. Her lidless dragon-eyes.
1820. Shelley, Ode Liberty, iv. Philosophy did strain Her lidless eyes for thee.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, IV. 306. Not less to an eye like mine A lidless watcher of the public weal.
c. Comb., as lidless-eyed, -looking adjs.
1818. Keats, Endym., I. 598. The lidless-eyed train Of planets.
1878. N. Amer. Rev., CXXVII. 153. Lidless-looking eyes.
