a. Also 4 -lez, 6 -les, 6–7 -lesse. [f. SPOT sb.1 Cf. WFlem. spotteloos.]
1. Free from spot or stain; not marked with, or disfigured by, spots; of a pure or uniform color.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 856. Of spotlez perlez þay beren þe creste.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., I. i. 182. The people of Rome … Send thee … This Palliament of white and spotlesse Hue.
1606. Marston, Parasitaster, IV. G 4. Vntrodden snow is not so spotless.
1653. R. Sanders, Physiogn., 157. The body being clear, fair, pure, neat, and spotless.
1726–46. Thomson, Winter, 812. fair ermines, spotless as the snows they press.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, xxiii. The bed seemed to me like snow-drift and mist—spotless, soft, and gauzy.
1876. Miss Braddon, J. Haggard’s Dau., II. 15. The red-brick floor spotless as if it were a floor in a picture.
b. In specific names.
1827. Griffith, trans. Cuvier, V. 274. The Ai seems to vary considerably as the Spotless Ai, the Yellow-faced Ai.
1832. J. Rennie, Consp. Butterfl. & Moths, 19. The Spotless Brown (Polyommatus Titus). Ibid., 188. The Spotless Straw (Depressaria immaculana).
2. fig. Free from stain or blot; immaculate, pure.
1577. [see SPOTTINESS].
1590. Spenser, Tears Muses, 388. Sweete Loue deuoyd of villanie … But pure and spotles.
1634. W. Tirwhyt, trans. Balzac’s Lett., 318. I … do protest unto you … that my fidelity is spotless.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 318. How have ye … banisht from mans life … Simplicitie and spotless innocence.
1738. Wesley, Ps. CXXI. vi. Like thy spotless Master thou, Fill’d with Wisdom, Love and Power.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxxiii. III. 333. The people applauded his spotless integrity.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, xiv. II. 228. His mother’s reputation was not deemed spotless.
1875. Manning, Mission H. Ghost, xii. 331. So, I may say, all are bound to live a life that is spotless before God.
absol. 1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, liv. O you spotless, who have the right of capital punishment vested in you.
b. Guiltless or innocent of something rare–1
1619. Fletcher, etc. Knt. Malta, II. v. Ye fight for her, as spotless of these mischiefs, As heaven is of our sins.
