a. [f. STYLE sb. + -LESS.]

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  1.  Devoid of style, in various senses. Hence Stylelessness.

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1796.  Anna Seward, Lett. (1811), IV. 196. An abode which, though a mansion … spacious to my utmost wish, breathes of nothing above the level of mere common and stileless life.

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1886.  Contemp. Rev., July, 106. The modern styleless Parisian images … which are now the eyesore of most Roman Catholic churches.

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1893.  Stevenson, Lett. (1899), II. 314. The British pig returns to his true love, the love of the styleless, of the shapeless, of the slapdash and the disorderly.

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1911.  H. O. Taylor, Mediaeval Mind, II. VI. xxxi. The only trouble is stylelessness. In fine, an absence of quality characterizes Carolingian prose.

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1912.  Nation, 20 April, 96/1. All his novels … are styleless, formless, abounding in digressions.

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  2.  Bot. Of an ovary: Having no styles.

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1821.  S. F. Gray, Brit. Plants, I. 152. Ovary … Style-less, acephalum. Not having any styles.

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