kirklessadj.
/ˈkəːkləs/, U.S. /ˈkərkləs/, Scottish English /ˈkɪrkləs/ Scottish.
= churchless adj. (in either sense).
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > religion > a religion or church > [adjective] > included in > not
churchless1567
kirkless1801
1801 H. Macneill Poet. Wks. I. 49 After a Sunday's feast—or pascal Wi' you, ye kirkless canty rascal.
1854 Anglo-Amer. Mag. Feb. 184/2 They are commodities which every kirkless preacher and roadside beggar claim as their prerequisites.
1895 Westm. Gaz. 8 Jan. 8/1 The kirkless ministers of his country..will applaud him.
1902 A. E. Barr Song of Single Note i. 4 The loyal Calvinists o' New York hae been too long kirkless.
1922 J. D. Sawyer Hist. Pilgrims & Puritans II. v. 256 When they make harbor, religious instruction must be given those fishermen, whose kirkless homes are on the high seas.
1942 G. Wilson in Sc. National Dict. (1960) V. 415/2 [Banffshire] John streeve wi' the session an' he's been kirkless this twinty year.
1956 M. Lindsay Lowlands of Scotl.: Edinb. & South xi. 290 The National Trust for Scotland has preserved..the two-hundred-year-old kirkless steeple.
2004 Oxf. Dict. National Biogr. XL. 842/1 The subject's choice of Sandy the shepherd among her various wooers (a farmer's son, a kirkless minister, a shepherd, and a merchant) represents a sound preference for honest worth.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1801