a. [f. SPIRIT sb. + -LESS.]
1. Deprived of the spirit or animating principle; having or possessing no spirit; lifeless.
1570. T. Norton, trans. Nowell’s Catech. (1853), 160. His dead and spiritless body was laid in the grave.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XII. 163. The man … Fell now quite-spiritlesse to earth.
a. 1616. Beaum. & Fl., Bonduca, V. i. ’Tis the Body Of the great Captain Penyus, by himself Made cold and spiritless.
1705. Greenhill, Embalming, 5. Nature admonishes us that the spiritless Body should be restored to the Earth.
1852. Bailey, Festus (ed. 5), 346. A work or thought … may Be … like the air,… Sweeping miles broad o’er far western woods,… Or may be, nothing—bodiless, spiritless.
2. Devoid of lively or cheerful spirits; depressed, dejected, downcast, dull or melancholy.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. i. 70. Euen such a man, so faint, so spiritlesse, So dull.
c. 1620. Fletcher & Mass., Double Marriage, II. i. Why are you still so sad?… You make us dull, and spiritless.
1643. Milton, Divorce, iv. Wks. 1851, IV. 29. Whereof who misses by chancing on a mute and spiritlesse mate, remaines more alone then before.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Architecture, III. 18/1. Those that grieve … seem fatigued and spiritless.
1778. Miss Burney, Evelina, lxxvi. I was totally spiritless and dejected.
1816. C. Hutton, Concl. Life W. Hutton, 92. I … found my father thinner, weaker, and more spiritless than I left him.
1826. Literary Souvenir, 326. He sank spiritless, and almost lifeless, upon the gunwale of the vessel.
1876. Trans. Clinical Soc., IX. 189. The child, ceasing to play about, became spiritless.
transf. 1778. [W. H. Marshall], Minutes Agric., Observ., 67. The countenance of the Soil … is pallid and spiritless.
3. Destitute or devoid of spirit, animation or courage; lacking ardor or boldness.
1628. Feltham, Resolves, II. 5. I wish no man so spiritlesse, as to let all abuses presse the dulnesse of a willing shoulder.
1651. Biggs, New Disp., ¶ 100. We are uselesse and spiritlesse to our selves and the Common-Wealth.
1702. Dennis, Monument, xiii. Their Soldiers and Commanders all grown faint, Dejected, spiritless with frequent Routs.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., viii. I. 214. The infantry was a half-armed spiritless crowd of peasants.
1839. Dickens, Nickleby, xxxi. You are a base and spiritless scoundrel!
1850. Merivale, Rom. Emp., xi. (1865), II. 21. Spiritless himself, he was incapable of infusing spirit.
1884. Swinburne, Midsummer Holiday, etc. 169. As a swordless and spiritless nation.
b. Destitute of energy or enterprise.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 71. About half a century ago, the country was uninclosed, the fields uncultivated and the farmers spiritless and poor.
c. 1825. Ld. Cockburn, Mem. (1856), 168. The publishers we had were too spiritless even for their position.
1861. Smiles, Engineers, II. 49. The country was too poor or too spiritless to undertake their improvement on any comprehensive scale.
4. Marked or characterized by lack of animation, vivacity or energy.
1651. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., II. (1739), p. ix. Both the Election of a King, and the Solemnization of such Election,… are spiritless motions without the presence of the people.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 484, ¶ 5. Men have indulged themselves in a spiritless Sheepishness.
1753. Richardson, Grandison (1766), V. 269. What a spiritless figure does he make!
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, II. 38. The evening was passed in spiritless conversation.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., II. 133. That spiritless apathy with which the subjects of the Italian principalities submitted to the rule of their despotic masters.
1878. T. Hardy, Ret. Native, IV. iv. The spiritless stir of the summer wind.
b. Of literary or artistic productions.
1737. Gentl. Mag., VII. 12/2. A literal Translation of the Hebrew Code … must necessarily be,… at best, but flat, insipid, and spiritless.
1797. T. Holcroft, trans. Stolberg’s Trav., II. xlvi. These colours, when singly laid on, are entirely spiritless.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. 198. It was her business to sketch designs,… but … the figures were awkward and spiritless.
† 5. Lacking spiritual zeal; cold. Obs.–1
1680. H. More, Apocal. Apoc., 37. And buy of Me white rayment,… O spiritless Laodicea, and desire to be cloathed with thy Spiritual Tabernacle from Heaven.
Hence Spiritlessly adv.
1669. H. More, Exp. 7 Epist., ix. 142. The same [formal profession] will this Church of Laodicea hold on spiritlessly and lazily, with little life or zeal.
1873. Miss Broughton, Nancy, III. 30. We part without a word, and I, spiritlessly, mount the staircase alone.
1879. W. Collins, Rogue’s Life, i. Her son … spiritlessly availed himself of the oleaginous refuse of the soap and candle trade.
