a. [OE. hláfordléas, f. hláford LORD sb. + -léas -LESS.] Without a lord; having no lord. Of a woman: Husbandless.
Beowulf (Z.), 2934. Oððæt hi oð-eodon earfoðlice in hrefnes holt hlaford-lease.
c. 1290. Beket, 678, in S. Eng. Leg., I. 126. Ase men þat weren louerdlese—heo nusten ȝwat a-bide.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 2987. Þou ast ymad … moni child wiþ oute fader, & moni wif louerd les.
c. 1440. Capgrave, Life St. Kath., III. 489. Hoo is hir lord, or wheder is she lordles?
1643. T. Case, Serm., in Kerr, Covenants & Covenanters (1895), 249. Your diocese [shall be] bishopless and your sees lordless.
1823. Joanna Baillie, Collect. Poems, 312. An armed band From Moorham’s lordless hall.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. iii. 91. The lordless man became a kind of outlaw.
1868–70. Morris, Earthly Par., I. I. 137. And many a lordless, troubled land Fell scarce loth to his dreaded hand.
