a. [f. SOUL sb. + -LESS. Cf. OE. sáwol-, sáwel-, sáwlléas, MDu. sielloos (Du. zielloos), MHG. sêl(e)lôs (G. seellos, seelenlos), Sw. själlös.]
1. Having no soul; from whom or which the soul has departed. Also fig.
1553. Short Catech., in Lit. & Doctr. Edw. VI. (1844), 523. That this godly knowledge decay not in thee, nor lie soulless and dead, as it were, in a tomb.
1599. Sandys, Europæ Spec. (1632), 225. In sume their holinesse is the very outwerd work it selfe, being a brainlesse head and a soule-lesse body.
1652. Bp. Hall, Height of Eloquence, p. xxv. Like soulelesse carkasses they fall down dead.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 215. He resolved that the Soul of the World … was not made by God … out of any thing Inanimate and Soulless Preexisting.
c. 1801. C. K. Sharpe, in Allardyce, Corr., etc. (1888), I. 25. Sage Paine,… Eager to prove … Mankind deluded fools and soulless beasts.
1860. Pusey, Min. Proph., 137. Apollinarians … held the Godhead to have been united to a soulless, and so a brute, nature.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 178. I verily believe that if I were left alone long enough with such a scene as this…, I should be found soulless and dead.
transf. 1841. Brewster, Mart. Sci., ii. (1856), 24. A vast unblest desert senseless, voiceless and soulless.
1876. ‘Ouida,’ Winter City, vi. 136. Monotonous parapets of cast-iron, the heaviest, most soulless, most hateful thing that is manufactured.
2. Of persons: Destitute of or wanting in the noble qualities of the soul; lacking spirit, courage, or elevation of mind or feeling.
1587. Montgomerie, Sonn., xxiv. 3. A saulles suinger, seuintie tymes mensuorne.
1594. Peele, Battle of Alcazar, II. iii. He on whose glorie all thy ioy should stay, Is souleless, glorylesse, and desperate.
1613. Marston, Insat. C’tess, IV. Wks. 1856, III. 163. That man is soulelesse that ne’er sinnes on earth.
1702. De Foe, Mock Mourners, 13. Trembling, and Soul-less half the Nation stood.
1728. Ramsay, Last Sp. Miser, xvi. They ca’d me slave to usury … And sauleless wretch.
1812. Crabbe, Tales, vi. 263. Nor shall a formal, rigid, soul-less boy My manners alter.
1847. C. Brontë, Jane Eyre, xxiii. Do you think, because I am poor,… I am soulless and heartless?
1856. Hawthorne, Eng. Note-bks. (1879), I. 25. They did not appear wicked,… but only soulless.
absol. 1844. Mrs. Browning, Drama of Exile, 1271. Sinning against the province of the Soul To rule the soulless.
b. Of the eyes: Lacking animation or expression; dull.
1835. Browning, Paracelsus, III. Poems (1905), 458. Having lain long with blank and soulless eyes, He sat up suddenly.
3. Of things, qualities, etc.: Characterized by a lack of animation, ardor or vivacity; dull, insipid, uninteresting.
1632. I. M. S., in Shaks. Sec. Folio. What story coldly tells,… and picture without braine Senselesse and soullesse showes.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., vii. 327. It was nothing else but a soulless and lifeless form of external performances.
1656. W. Mountague, Accompl. Woman, 119. Modesty is a powerfull charme, without it beauty is soul-lesse.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Charmed Sea, iii. 37. I see things as they are, bleak and bare, and soulless.
1864. Pusey, Lect. Daniel, 555. Content with its outward soulless round of observances.
1870. Mozley, Univ. Serm., iii. (1877), 49. There is nothing which so little interests us as soulless earnestness, ardour without faith.
b. Of writings, art, etc.: Devoid of inspiration or feeling.
1856. W. H. Smyth, Roman Family Coins, Introd. p. xxix. Too many of our best recent specimens of art are soulless.
1860. Pusey, Min. Proph., 204. Giddy, thoughtless, heartless, soulless versifying.
1887. St. James’s Gaz., 10 Feb., 7/1. Students find its literature, and above all its poetry, soulless and uninspired.
Hence Soullessly adv., Soullessness.
1870. S. Cheetham, in Contemp. Rev., XIII. 12. A reference to the proverbial soullessness of boards.
1871. Tylor, Prim. Cult., II. 325. Those to whom religion means, religious feeling, may say … that I have written soullessly of the soul.
1891. Athenæum, 7 Nov., 614/1. Its characters exhibit … peculiar soullessness.
