datelessadj.n.

1597 W. Shakespeare Richard II i. iii. 145 The datelesse limite of thy deere exile. View more context for this quotation

1624 A. Darcie in tr. Originall of Idolatries To Author 108 Thy datelesse fame.

1641 J. Milton Of Reformation 90 Progressing the datelesse and irrevoluble Circle of Eternity.

1739 Scots Mag. May 226/2 There, dateless times shall hail my Prophet praise.

1811 P. B. Shelley St. Irvyne Concl. 236 A dateless and hopeless eternity of horror.

1870 J. R. Lowell My Study Windows (1886) 164 Immortal as that dateless substance of the soul.

1916 A. S. Monroe Happy Valley v. 52 I experienced the same gloriously unhampered sense of personal freedom and timelessness; it was a timeless world in a dateless eternity.

2007 Church Times 25 May 40/5 I would lie, reading, as he sketched, each of us lost for entire afternoons in some dateless present.

1606 J. Ford Fames Memoriall sig. G2^v By the alarum of deaths grim retreate, Is mustered to the camp from whence he came Cherub's, and Seraphims of datelesse fame.

1746 A. Hill Free Thoughts upon Faith 7 Jews, Tartars, Bramins, bord'ring Ganges' Flood, Swift Hords, of hot Arabia's swarthy Sons; Far China's dateless Race—Long Nile's Old Claim To Superstition's Childhood.

1796 S. T. Coleridge Relig. Musings in Poems Var. Subj. 153 In the primeval age a dateless while The vacant shepherd wander'd with his flock.

1814 W. Wordsworth Excursion vi. 287 From dateless usage which our Peasants hold Of giving welcome to the first of May. View more context for this quotation

1849 J. Ruskin Seven Lamps Archit. iii. 66 The dateless hills, which it needed earthquakes to lift, and deluges to mould.

1916 W. M. Hart Eng. Pop. Ballads 47 Essentially, ballads are of dateless age.

1995 Glasgow Herald (Nexis) 17 Oct. 14 Word puzzles, however, are of dateless antiquity.

1643 W. Prynne Let. 17 Nov. in C. Walker Articles Impeachm. & Accusation N. Fiennes 13 With the datelesse, namelesse, placelesse, sealesse Proclamation inclosed.

1680 A. Sall Let. 26 Oct. in R. Boyle Corr. (2001) V. 219 I receaved by this post yours dateless, but written in Aug. (as I find by the contents of it).

1716 H. Wanley Let. 24 Jan. (1989) 330 I received your dateless Letter..the last Saturday, safely.

1798 Monthly Rev. 27 514 A dateless account..inserted after the edict for its abolition.

1850 Brit. Q. Rev. May 317 It is not the first time our patience has been tried with a dateless book of travels.

1891 Spectator 4 Apr. Here is a dateless letter.

1957 P. Larkin Further Requirements (2002) iv. 182 Dateless and with no preface, it seems to represent a selection by its editor, Miss Norma Millay, from her sister's books.

1995 Private Eye 8 Sept. 6/1 I have to say we're pretty disgusted with your letter which seems to be dateless and we shall be taking action.

a1686 A. Martindale Life (1845) iv. 79 Which he, being almost datelesse for age,..readily granted.

1848 E. C. Gaskell Mary Barton II. vi. 98 Poor soul, she's gone dateless, I think, with care, and watching, and over-much trouble.

1854 Notes & Queries 9 Sept. 211/1 ‘After he hit me o' th' heead I was dateless;’ that is, I took no note of time.

1863 E. C. Gaskell Sylvia's Lovers II. 263 Mother is gone dateless wi' sorrow.

1961 J. I. M. Stewart Man who won Pools xi. 121 He'd been pretty well flourishing a quarter of a million pounds at her like she was a dateless shopgirl.

1984 Jrnl. Lancs Dial. Soc. Jan. 13/1 Dateless, without energy or common sense.

1995 J. M. Sims-Kimbrey Wodds & Doggerybaw: Lincs. Dial. Dict. 74/2 Dateless, senile, or with faculties noticeably diminished by age.

1908 H. M. Alden Mag. Writing & New Lit. 294 When we read Conrad's Lord Jim or Kenneth Grahame's Golden Age, we do not give them a definite place in the course of human culture, as we do the writings of Thackeray, George Eliot,..and Henry James. This kind of work seems, in a way, almost dateless.

1943 Wisconsin State Jrnl. 6 Aug. ii. 9/5 You'll see here classic, crack tailored styles that are ageless, dateless—always in good taste.

1967 Times 17 Oct. 13/3 Any woman who wanted to give the same dateless quality to a portrait would be well advised to wear black.

2010 Observer (Nexis) 28 Nov. (Mag.) 18 More Huxley than Orwell, Atwood riffs on feminist motifs with a fierce ingenuity that still seems as dateless yet topical as when it first appeared.

1923 Lyre Jan. 149 They decided to hold as ‘dateless nights’ Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights of each week.

1944 Chicago Tribune 10 Dec. Grafic Mag. 4 Sometimes that mood indigo comes up briefly on a dateless Friday night.

1969 Life 23 May 15/1 A fat, dateless teenager who spent her lonely evenings at the refrigerator.

2004 A. Robbins Pledged 85 I asked Amy, who was still dateless, how she was feeling.

1894 Daily News 17 Sept. 4/6 Its [sc. the British Museum's] way of bringing itself..to date is to approach nearer and nearer to the dateless.

1854 New Englander (New Haven, Connecticut) Nov. 502 God..is datelessly and eternally becoming three.

1956 K. Clark Nude iv. 117 The standing woman is not so datelessly naturalistic. Her..complex pose seems to have been derived from an antique relief.

2009 Times (Nexis) 30 Mar. ii. 7 It [sc. Big Ben] appears datelessly odd: a Gothic skyscraper in white, silver and gold, looming over the river.

1660 T. M. Walker's Hist. Independency IV. 91 The Officers of his [sc. General Monck's] Army..agreed..that the Parliament intended..to perpetuate the Nations slavery by their datelesness.

1894 National Rev. Sept. 139 The datelessness of the child had thrown a ceaseless mystery about her.

2003 D. Barnouw Naipaul's Strangers iv. 62 This innocence is predicated on an eclectic and distorting view of the past, the kind of opaque ‘datelessness’ Naipaul had encountered when researching his family history in Trinidad.