[f. prec. + -NESS.]
1. Lack of the sense of taste; fig. lack of relish or appreciation. Now rare.
1626. Donne, Serm., iv. (1640), 38. Our palate dead in a tastlesnesse.
1713. Berkeley, Guard., No. 49, ¶ 9. A secret indignation at the tastelessness of mortal men, who, in their race through life, overlook the real enjoyments of it.
1759. Johnson, Rasselas, xxxi. 165. A king, whose power is unlimited, and whose treasures surmount all real and imaginary wants, is compelled to solace, by the erection of a pyramid, the satiety of dominion and tastelesness of pleasures.
a. 1774. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 404. Such austerities and labours of devotion, such a tastelessness of all innocent enjoyments.
1785. Paley, Mor. Philos. (1787), I. vi. 26. A state being usually attended not with ease, but with depression of spirits, a tastelessness in all our ideas, imaginary anxieties, and the whole train of hypochondriacal affections.
2. Absence of taste or flavor; insipidity. Also fig.
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, III. lxi. 567. Their sharpnes, sowrenes, tartnes, harshnes, eagernes, sweetenes, and tastlesnes.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 468. On account of its tastelessness, this preparation … is sometimes employed as a purgative for children.
3. Absence or want of æsthetic discernment.
1778. Malone, Note on Tit. A., in Shaks.’s Wks., VIII. 561. One of their own fraternity, (who cannot well be suspected of asinine tastelessness, or Gothic prepossessions).
1825. Blackw. Mag., XVIII. 240. Others assign it to the nonchalance and tastelessness of managers.
1855. Doran, Hanov. Queens, II. i. 30. Garrick, considering he was a man of taste, displayed great tastelessness on this occasion.
