[f. STAY sb.2 + -LESS.]
1. Without stay or support, unsupported.
1587. Higgins, Mirr. Mag., Pinnar, Lenuoye ii. If hee vnstatelike stammer out the same, With staylesse staggering footed verse, by ame.
c. 1590. Faire Em, I. ii. 33. Although our outward pomp be thus abased, And thralde to drudging, staylesse of the world.
1590. Lodge, Euphues Gold. Leg., F 2 b. Oh staylesse youth, by errour so misguided.
1607. J. Davies (Heref.), Summa Totalis (Grosart), 19/2. It was his will, That man, made stailesse, so should fall, and rise.
c. 1817. Hogg, Tales & Sk., I. 291. Left helpless and stayless.
2. Unsupported by stays or corsets.
1880. Mrs. Lynn Linton, Rebel of Family, iii. The girl’s slender, loose and stayless waist.
1883. Philad. Press, 7 June, 9. A stayless waist with ‘divided underskirts concealed.’
Hence Staylessness.
1883. Philad. Press, 7 June, 9. Staylessness, it appears, is not by itself sufficient unto salvation in this matter, nor is the divided skirt by itself sufficient.
