| 释义 |
▪ I. † ˈgainless, a.1 Obs. rare.
In 3 gaȝhennlaes.
[f. gain n.1 + -less.]
Of no avail.
c1200Ormin 13946 Annd tanne waere uss gaȝhennlaes þatt Crist wass daed o rode.
▪ II. gainless, a.2|ˈgeɪnlɪs|
[f. gain n.2 + -less.]
1. Producing no gain; unprofitable; useless.
1640O. Sedgwicke Christs Counsell 39 For our communion with God, it will grow more strange, less confident, and more gainless. 1654Hammond Answ. Animadv. Ignat. ii. §i. 24 The several gainlesse paines that his sharp Animadversion hath..cost each of us. 1658Whole Duty Man vi. §14 (1687) 56 It is not only gainless, but painful and uneasie also. 1878Swinburne Poems & Ball. Ser. ii. 76 Some gainlesse glimpse of Proserpine's veiled head.
2. nonce-use. Indifferent to gain.
1876J. Martineau Hours Th. (1877) 24 The godless lover of gain and the gainless lover of God are fanatics both.
Hence ˈgainlessness, the state of being gainless.
1667Decay Chr. Piety v. ⁋23 And the parallel holds too, in the gainlesness as well as laboriousness of the work. |