a. [f. SPECK sb.1] Having no speck or speckle; free from specks, blemishes, flaws, etc. Also in fig. context.
1788. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Peter’s Proph., 41. The beautiful deformities of nature! Birds without heads, and tails, and wings, and legs,… speckless eggs [etc.].
a. 1827. Wordsw., Misc. Sonn., II. xix. If his thought stand clear,… Bright, speckless, as a softly-moulded tear.
1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, xviii. The second sun set—still the horizon was speckless.
1889. C. Edwardes, Sardinia, 120. The speckless blue of the sky.
b. Free from specks of dirt, dust, etc.; scrupulously or spotlessly clean. Also in fig. context.
1827. Pusey, in Liddon, Life (1893), I. vii. 137. Viewing their minds in the almost speckless mirror of his own.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, i. The leaded windows were bright and speckless.
1879. Mrs. Macquoid, Berksh. Lady, 159. Afraid of soiling his speckless shoes.
Hence Specklessly adv., Specklessness.
1862. T. A. Trollope, Marietta, I. x. 186–7. Signor Giuseppe Palli … equally rigid and bolt upright in his chair, equally specklessly black.
1876. Mrs. Whitney, Sights & Ins., xiii. 130. The whole turn-out is specklessly brilliant in finish.
1882. ‘F. Anstey,’ Vice Versâ, iv. 64. His dress … having all the uncreased trimness and specklessness [etc.].
