lucklessadj.

1563 T. Sackville in W. Baldwin et al. Myrrour for Magistrates (new ed.) Induct. sig. Q Come I am, the drery destinie And luckeles lot for to bemone.

a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) i. sig. N6 Mine is the lucklest lot, That euer fell to honest woman yet.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 3 (1623) ii. vi. 18 I, and ten thousand in this lucklesse Realme. View more context for this quotation

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Pastorals viii, in tr. Virgil Wks. 37 Let the whelming Tide, The lifeless Limbs of luckless Damon hide.

1749 P. Francis tr. Horace Wks. II. 303 A Weezel, who beheld her thus distrest, In friendly sort the luckless Mouse addrest.

1782 W. Cowper Hist. John Gilpin in Public Advertiser 14 Nov. Ah! luckless Word, and bootless Boast.

1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People v. §1. 213 Chaucer..was luckless enough to be made prisoner.

1876 L. Stephen Hist. Eng. Thought 18th Cent. I. iii. 102 It was a luckless performance so far as his temporal interests were concerned.

1928 Daily Express 30 July 12/2 He easily pegged back the luckless Countess of Hainault by two lengths.

2011 New Yorker 10 Oct. 20/2 Our luckless heroine..suffers violence at the hands of an invisible—and possibly supernatural—force.

1584 W. Warner Pan his Syrinx xlix. sig. Ti^v The fauourable Aspect of no Planet, hath bene quallefying to the luckles Starre of my Natiuity, and therefore haue I founde all fortunes, preuailing to the drifte of this Catastrophe.

1594 R. Carew tr. T. Tasso Godfrey of Bulloigne iv. 141 His countenance as lucklesse Comete flakes.

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis iii, in tr. Virgil Wks. 268 I land; with luckless Omens, then adore Their Gods, and draw a Line along the Shore.

1727 J. Hewitt Misc. in Prose & Verse 81 Dreadful in it's Orb each luckless Planet glar'd.

1796 G. L. Way tr. P. J.-B. Legrand d'Aussy Fabliaux I. 125 Dubious grown, his course he backward bends, To learn what hap that luckless cry portends.

1832 G. A. L. Chantilly III. 304 ‘There are just thirteen, the ill-starred luckless number!’ exclaimed Madame de Nogaret.

1867 A. L. Adams Wanderings Naturalist India v. 87 We had rambled all day.., pursuing the black partridges wherever their luckless call attracted us.

1916 G. E. Taft Chimalman 43 Deeming his advent luckless omen for Prince Tecpanpilli and Tulan's estate.

2005 Hamilton (Ont.) Spectator (Nexis) 13 May a1 Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg allegedly dealt with the luckless number by replacing it with ‘12b’ in his longer scores.

1596 C. Middleton Hist. Heaven sig. A2^v This Nymph once bathing on her in a brooke..By Iupiter was lucklesly espied.

1770 J. Armstrong Forced Marriage i. vi. 32 Whate'er may happen lucklessly, the worst Is still avoidable.

1828 H. Angelo Reminisc. I. 452 When lucklessly engaging to subdue a fine Arabian..he was thrown, and..killed on the spot.

1994 Washington Post 27 Nov. 8/2 Neil..has floundered lucklessly from one catastrophe to the next.

1834 J. S. Knowles Beggar of Bethnal-Green iii. i. 99 This precious hand, had I the skill to read... Lucklessness Through life,—unpurchased foes [etc.].

1901 L. Becke By Rock & Pool on Austral Shore 135 He sat cogitating..over his lucklessness.

2009 N. Baker Anthologist xi. 173 Out of..feelings of miserable exclusion and persecution and lucklessness, Poe wrote ‘The Raven’.