reasonlessadj.adv.

a1450 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (Bodl.) xviii. lii. 273/1 [The ant is] a litel beste wiþoute prince and resonles.

a1450 (c1412) T. Hoccleve De Regimine Principum (Harl. 4866) (1897) 3659 (MED) He tho weies take wolde That beestes resonles vsen and holde.

1579 T. Salter Mirrhor of Modestie 6 As it is not onely evident to bee seen in menne that are reasonable, but in thynges that are reasonlesse.

1581 G. Pettie tr. S. Guazzo Ciuile Conuersat. (1586) ii. 80 b Nature..giuing a very long life to many reasonlesse creatures.

1604 T. Wright Passions of Minde (new ed.) v. §4. 201 Beasts, though reasonlesse, yet in loue follow this generall instinct and inclination of reason.

1633 W. Struther True Happines 14 Three instances prove the same: The first is from reasonlesse creatures.

1674 N. Fairfax Treat. Bulk & Selvedge 135 Those reasonless breathers that live under us.

1744 J. Miller Mahomet v. i. 60 What a reasonless Machine Can Superstition make the Reas'ner Man!

1877 J. S. Blackie Wise Men Greece 250 So great a gap Betwixt the reasonless and the reasoning life A favouring God hath set.

1923 Jrnl. Amer. Inst. Criminal Law & Criminol. 14 241 To hold with..so many who use free action and unmotivated action interchangeably would be to speak of some mysterious, chaotically-free, but absolutely reasonless or intelligenceless creature.

1964 Language 40 284 A semantic deviation from ‘animal’ towards ‘reasonless being, stupid person, fool’.

2002 Jrnl. Interdisciplinary Hist. 32 417 It would be both blasphemous and useless to condemn a reasonless creature.

1557 B. Burgh tr. Cato in J. Bury tr. Isocrates To Demonicus sig. B.ij^v For there is no persone in earth on lyue, But that all reasonlesse he is as blyue, As besy wrath hath kyndled hym on fyre.

1592 Greenes Groats-worth of Witte sig. D3^v Reasonlesse Roberto, that hauing but a brokers place, askest a lenders reward.

1628 G. Wither Britain's Remembrancer iii. 626 Now, most thou need'st it, be not reasonlesse.

1671 F. Philipps Regale Necessarium Ep. Ded. sig. a2 These unhappy times have brought forth a sort of reasonless men, whose humors and Phancies..makes them unwilling to submit to Laws.

1731 C. Johnson Trag. Medea i. i. 2 Yet still my Heart Delights in Hope; and, reasonless and lost, To every other Comfort, feeds on Air.

1868 R. Browning Ring & Bk. II. iv. 1 This rabble's-brabble of dolts and fools Who make up reasonless unreasoning Rome.

1885 A. Edwardes Girton Girl I. iii. 68 That reasonless creature..has one of her throats again, and I did so want her to take some of my globules.

1932 R. Macaulay They were Defeated i. xii. 78 So reasonless are the vulgar.

1995 Renaissance Q. 48 776 The misogynist topos of the reasonless woman who judges things only through her eyes.

1623 W. Drummond Cypresse Groue in Flowres of Sion 47 Death..is the reasonlesse breaker off of all Actions.

1804 A. Seward Mem. Dr. Darwin 89 Reasonless, will-less instinct, limited but undeviating.

1867 H. Macmillan Bible Teachings (1870) ii. 36 The forces of nature..are not reasonless, merciless forces.

1895 Q. Rev. Apr. 492 A purely reasonless concourse of atoms.

1962 Jrnl. Relig. 42 204/2 Man's state of wanting to know is eradicated only by death, for the stillness of a reasonless world never provides man with the unifying answer for which he is seeking.

2007 Daily Mail (Nexis) 12 Dec. 14 It was the apparently random, reasonless nature of his death that was, and continues to be, the most disturbing.

1556 N. Grimald tr. Cicero Thre Bks. Duties iii. f. 119 That verielie is reasonlesse, that somme saye [etc.].

1600 Looke about You sig. K2 I know my error seeking thy dishonor, But the respectlesse, reasonles commaund Of my inflamed loue, bids me still try.

1657 T. Wall Comment on Times 23 Casting a fraudulent shew of reason upon those things which are indeed reasonless.

1794 A. Seward Lett. (1811) IV. 34 The shallow, reasonless oratory, which is so perpetually shifting its ground.

1874 T. N. Harper Peace through Truth 2nd Ser. i. p. xx The feelings of the great body of the people, even though reasonless, ought to be respected.

1898 Argosy Oct. 467 We meet people who antagonize us the moment that a glance or a handshake is exchanged, while our inner consciousness offers no explanation for the reasonless antipathy.

1915 V. Woolf Voy. Out xix. 322 Again the profound and reasonless law asserted itself, moulding them all to its liking, making and destroying.

1965 ‘P. Loraine’ Dead Men of Sestos ix. 128 Anger burned in his eyes now, that terrible reasonless anger which she had faced before.

1990 M. Klein Determinism, Blameworthiness, & Deprivation 93 Decisions must (logically) be based on reasons, but..choices can be reasonless.

a1603 T. Cartwright Confut. Rhemists New Test. (1618) Pref. sig. E^v To affirme that a substantiall reason..should be iudged reasonlesse.

1634 J. Canne Necessitie of Separation iv. 188 It is likely he saw that there was no helpe for him there, and therefore onely makes use of this reasonlesse reason.

1670 G. Havers tr. G. Leti Il Cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa i. i. 20 The good Father..made me a long discourse.., alleging reasonless reasons.

1727 A. Buchan Descr. St. Kilda 37 Coll put them off such Thoughts, by telling them, he never saw a Priest deposed in his Country for Ignorance; with this and other such like reasonless Reasons they were satisfied.