soullessadj.n.
/ˈsəʊlləs/, U.S. /ˈsoʊ(l)ləs/ A. adj.
1. Having no soul, lacking a soul; from whom or which the soul has departed.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > spirituality > soul > [adjective] > having > not
soullessOE
the world > life > death > dead person or the dead > [adjective]
deadOE
lifelessOE
of lifeOE
storvena1225
dead as a door-nail1362
ydead1387
stark deadc1390
colda1400
bypast1425
perishedc1440
morta1450
obita1450
unquickc1449
gone?a1475
dead and gone1482
extinct1483
departed1503
bygonea1522
amort1546
soulless1553
breathless1562
parted1562
mortified1592
low-laid1598
disanimate1601
carcasseda1603
defunct1603
no morea1616
with God1617
death-stricken1618
death-strucken1622
expired1631
past itc1635
incinerated1657
stock-dead1662
dead as a herring1664
death-struck1688
as dead as a nit1789
(as) dead as mutton1792
low1808
laid in the locker1815
strae-dead1820
disanimated1833
ghosted1834
under the daisies1842
irresuscitable1843
under the sod1847
toes up1851
dead and buried1863
devitalized1866
translated1869
dead and done (for, with)1886
daid1890
bung1893
(as) dead as the (or a) dodo1904
six feet under1942
brown bread1969
OE Cynewulf Elene 876 Heht þa asettan sawlleasne, life belidenes lic on eorðan.
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) xix. 185 Se mann is gesceapen to his scyppendes anlicnysse, and soðlice ða nytenu sindon sawullease.
?a1450 in C. von Nolcken Middle Eng. Transl. Rosarium Theol. (1979) 99 To worschepe vayne figures & soulelez (wiþout soules) as godehedes.
1553 Short Catech. in Lit. & Doc. Edw. VI (1844) 523 That this godly knowledge decay not in thee, nor lie soulless and dead, as it were, in a tomb.
1599 E. Sandys Europæ Speculum (1632) 225 In sume their holinesse is the very outwerd work it selfe, being a brainlesse head and a soule-lesse body.
1652 J. Hall tr. Longinus Περι Ὑψους 25 Like soulelesse carkasses they fall down dead.
1678 R. Cudworth True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. iv. 215 He resolved that the Soul of the World..was not made by God..out of any thing Inanimate and Soulless Preexisting.
a1770 T. Chatterton Compl. Wks. (1971) I. 38 Downe he fell upon the Crymsonde Pleine, Upon Chatillions soulless Corse of Claie.
1796 F. Burney Camilla IV. viii. vi. 307 Nor was it till the moment..of her sudden death, that I knew the lifeless, soulless, inanimate frame was all she had bestowed upon me.
c1801 C. K. Sharpe Lett. (1888) I. 25 Sage Paine,..Eager to prove..Mankind deluded fools and soulless beasts.
1860 E. B. Pusey Minor Prophets 137 Apollinarians..held the Godhead to have been united to a soulless, and so a brute, nature.
1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. 178 I verily believe that if I were left alone long enough with such a scene as this..I should be found soulless and dead.
1909 Theosophist Oct. 19 To realise that no such thing as..soulless energy exists, but that all is animated, guided..by living conscious agents.
2007 R. Watson Cogito, Ergo Sum 11 [According to Descartes] bodies have no desires, no powers... Nature was thoroughly desacralized by this new mechanistic science of soulless bodies.
2.
a. Of a person: lacking spirit, sensitivity, or other qualities regarded as elevated or human; (now esp.) lacking in human warmth, feeling, or sympathy; cold, heartless. Also in extended use, of an institution, etc.In early use Scottish: †ignoble, base (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > absence of emotion > [adjective] > lacking emotional sensibility
unfeelingc1000
mis-feelinga1382
stonishc1450
unpainfulc1450
obtuse1509
sprightlessa1522
insensate1553
senseless1560
soulless1568
dull-esprited1591
impassible1592
bluntie1598
impenetrable1600
stockish1600
stolidc1600
incapable1601
stupid1605
tasteless1605
unsensitive1610
unexalted1611
insensible1617
unsensible1619
languid1622
immovable1639
dead-hearted1642
sterile1642
resupine1643
unaffectionate1645
iron-bound1648
resentlessa1649
torpid1656
torpulent1657
impassive1699
unreceptive1722
hebete1743
apathetic1744
stubbed1744
gustless1766
unresponsive1768
unsusceptible1779
tideless-blooded1786
unaffectioned1788
inaccessible1796
hebetudinous1820
unimpressible1828
insensitive1834
apathetical1835
non-sensitive1836
blunt-hearted1845
irreceptive1846
unreceptant1846
unimpressionable1847
anaesthetic1860
insentient1860
hard (also tough, sharp) as nails1862
unsqueamish1893
tone-deaf1894
unget-at-able1897
facty1901
zombie1937
pegamoid1957
the mind > emotion > fear > cowardice or pusillanimity > [adjective] > abjectly cowardly
recrayedc1330
recreantc1330
craven?a1400
poor1425
currishc1460
fazart1508
soulless1568
dastardly1576
beastly1584
dastard1595
low-spirited1598
peaking1611
white meata1625
cur-like1627
snivelling1647
cravenly1653
base-mettled1681
niding1755
poltroonish1801
niddering1819
turn-tail1861
turpid1867
cold-footed1944
Charley1954
1568 in W. T. Ritchie Bannatyne MS (1928) III. 278 Or than to god ȝe do grit Injure And sall accus ȝow saules of my ded.
1587 A. Montgomerie Sonnets xxiv. 3 A saulles suinger, seuintie tymes mensuorne.
1613 J. Marston & W. Barksted Insatiate Countesse iv. i. sig. F4 That man is soulelesse that ne'er sinnes on earth.
1702 D. Defoe Mock Mourners 13 Trembling, and Soul-less half the Nation stood.
1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison VI. xlii. 261 We met this morning soul-less, and forlorn, all equally unable either to give or receive consolation.
1799 W. Godwin St. Leon IV. viii. 172 Chicken-hearted wretch! poor, soulless poltroon!
1812 G. Crabbe Tales vi. 116 Nor shall a formal, rigid, soul-less boy My manners alter.
1847 C. Brontë Jane Eyre II. viii. 209 Do you think, because I am poor..I am soulless and heartless?
1853 N. Hawthorne Jrnl. 20 Aug. in Eng. Notebks. (1997) I. i. 19 They did not appear wicked, but only..soulless.
1922 W. E. Connelley & E. M. Coulter Hist. Kentucky II. xlix. 612 Soul-less persons vested with the management of some neighboring bank.
1955 S. J. Perelman in New Yorker 5 Mar. 29/1 It just proved that a few spunky people could trounce a big, soulless corporation if they stuck together.
2004 N.Y. Mag. 11 Oct. 41/1 Harvey thinks Michael is a soulless, tasteless, lying prick.
b. Of features, esp. the eyes: lacking animation, expression, or emotion; showing no feeling.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > head > face > eye > [adjective] > by size, shape, etc.
steepc1000
standing1340
glazenc1380
glassy1412
ungladlyc1450
sparklinga1500
goggle1540
pinking1566
whally1590
vailed1591
unweeping1598
dejected1600
unwet1601
glossed1602
haggard1605
saucer-like1612
saucer1618
glaring1622
uncast1629
startling1648
poppinga1696
upraised1707
glancy1733
glazed1735
almond1786
open-eyed1799
bald1807
glazing1808
lustreless1810
unfathomable1817
vague1820
soulless1824
beady1826
socketless1833
fishy1836
glazy1838
popped1849
agoggled1860
uprolled1864
unfaceted1893
shoe-button1895
poppy1899
googly1901
slitty1908
bead-berry1923
1824 Knight's Q. Mag. 2 419 You would but watch my sobs and sighs, With..silent sneers, And deck with smiles those soulless eyes.
1835 R. Browning Paracelsus iii. 78 Having lain long with blank and soulless eyes—He sate up suddenly.
1857 M. W. Janvrin Peace xxxvii. 347 Why, Florence Delano, with her soulless lips—I'd as lief an icicle would touch mine!
1903 Windsor Mag. 18 702 He stared about him with an inane smile on his soulless face.
1946 S. Spender European Witness (1947) 32 The German soldiers now have the soulless ground-down expression..of Slav peasants.
2008 Daily Record (Nexis) 6 June 40 An unstoppable angel of death, surveying everyone with dark, soulless eyes.
3.
a. Of a thing, action, quality, etc.: characterized by a lack of animation, warmth, or passion; dull, uninspiring, uninteresting.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > feeling of weariness or tedium > [adjective] > wearisome or tedious > bland or insipid
colourlessc1425
unsavouryc1449
wearish?1533
wersha1599
tasteless1603
tame1604
juiceless1620
water gruela1627
dry1632
soulless1632
frigid1643
vapid1656
insipida1684
fade1715
heartless1780
vapid1785
achromatic1799
sauceless1817
albuminous1858
antiseptic1891
flat-footed1899
unatmospheric1913
defanged1920
anodyne1933
spiceless1942
tea-party1961
nothingburger1965
1632 I. M. S. in W. Shakespeare Comedies, Hist. & Trag. (ed. 2) sig. *3 What story coldly tells,..and picture without braine Senselesse and soulelesse showes.
1656 W. Montagu tr. J. Du Bosc Accomplish'd Woman 119 Modesty is a powerfull charme, without it beauty is soul-lesse.
1789 A. M. Bennett Agnes de-Courci IV. 180 She was absent, and gloomy when we could prevail on her to join our soulless parties.
1833 H. Martineau Charmed Sea iii. 37 I see things as they are, bleak and bare, and soulless.
1870 J. B. Mozley Univ. Serm. (1877) iii. 49 There is nothing which so little interests us as soulless earnestness, ardour without faith.
1921 tr. W. Rathenau New Society xi. 109 But mindless and soulless work no man can do with any joy.
1985 C. W. E. Bigsby Beyond Broadway ix. 285 The triviality of their daily lives..is relieved by brief spasms of soulless sex.
2000 Wavelength Jan. 12/1 If it's run like the '99 events it will be a soulless and dull four-week surfathon.
b. spec. Of literature, art, music, etc.: devoid of inspiration or feeling; cold, mechanical.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > the arts in general > [adjective] > qualities of works generally
wateryc1230
polite?a1500
meagre1539
over-laboured1579
bald1589
spiritless1592
light1597
meretricious1633
standing1661
effectual1662
airy1664
severe1665
correct1676
enervatea1704
free1728
classic1743
academic1752
academical1752
chaste1753
nerveless1763
epic1769
crude1786
effective1790
creative1791
soulless1794
mannered1796
manneristical1830
manneristic1837
subjective1840
inartisticala1849
abstract1857
inartistic1859
literary1900
period1905
atmospheric1908
dateless1908
atmosphered1920
non-naturalistic1925
self-indulgent1926
free-styled1933
soft-centred1935
freestyle1938
pseudish1938
decadent1942
post-human1944
kitschy1946
faux-naïf1958
spare1965
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > weakness or feebleness > [adjective] > vapid or insipid > spiritless or uninspired
spiritless1592
unspirited1751
soulless1794
1794 T. Holcroft Adventures Hugh Trevor III. ix. 200 If I were to judge from this experiment, a more uninteresting soul-less piece had never been written.
1856 W. H. Smyth Descr. Catal. Roman Family Coins Introd. p. xxix Too many of our best recent specimens of art are soulless.
1887 St. James's Gaz. 10 Feb. 7/1 Students find its literature, and above all its poetry, soulless and uninspired.
1902 A. H. Sayce Relig. Anc. Egypt & Babylonia vi. 387 The stilted and soulless productions of the eighteenth century, in which commonplace ideas..masquerade as Greek nymphs.
1985 San Diego Union-Tribune (Nexis) 26 July d1 Most viewers..will have a good time with ‘The Black Cauldron’. Yet there is something a touch soulless about it.
2000 Hollywood Reporter (Nexis) 16 June Gibson gives a..precise but soulless performance in which he seems more concerned with how he looks than what his character is thinking or feeling.
c. Of a place, structure, etc.: lacking life, warmth, or character; having no individual, humanizing, or distinguishing features.
ΚΠ
1829 J. E. Bethune Life Galileo iii. 33 A vast unblessed desert;..senseless, lifeless, soulless, and stript of all those ornaments which make it [sc. the earth] now so various.
1876 ‘Ouida’ In Winter City vi. 92 Monotonous parapets of cast-iron, the heaviest, most soulless thing that is manufactured.
1896 H. C. Bunner Jersey Street & Jersey Lane 178 To tempt the city dweller out to that dreary, soulless waste which has all the modern improvements and not one tree.
1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 31 Jan. 63/2 The neon lighting, the petrol fumes, the ‘soulless concrete’ of our time.
1976 A. Nickolds & S. Hey ‘Foul’ Bk. Football i. 46/1 An out of town sports fantasia with a soulless all-seating stadium.
2010 Independent 8 Apr. 27/6 The strain of traipsing soulless council estates, being cheeked by teenage yobbos.
B. n.
With the and plural agreement: soulless people collectively.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > absence of emotion > [noun] > want of or incapacity for emotion > person
thickskin1582
insensiblea1618
unnaturalist1623
non-sensitive1628
apathist1640
stick1801
soulless1824
zombie1936
1824 T. J. Lynch in Edinb. Dramat. Rev. (1825) 1 93 The heart-galling taunts of the soulless and proud.
1844 E. B. Barrett Drama of Exile 1271 in Poems I Sinning against the province of the Soul To rule the soulless.
1917 Theosophical Path 13 493 Greatness is itself a quality of the Divine;..the soulless are commonplace and vulgar.
1997 T. Petsinis French Mathematician (1998) i. xii. 107 I haven't got a soul..therefore I'll make others lose theirs, and I'll be the god of the soulless.
Derivatives
ˈsoullessly adv.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > absence of emotion > [adverb]
unappassionately1598
stupidlya1626
dispassionately1717
impassively1828
apathetically1831
passionlessly1831
soullessly1832
stockishly1846
unresponsively1853
feelinglessly1856
stolidly1856
insensately1863
impassibly1872
unemotionally1884
stonily1899
insensitively1961
1832 A. Slade Records of Travels in Turkey, Greece, & Black Sea I. ix. 270 The multitudes labouring naked,..their only enjoyment—shared with animals, as transitorily and as soullessly—multiplying their wretched species.
1921 S. McKenna Educ. of Eric Lane 44 You don't care whether I'm happy or not. You're soullessly selfish!
2008 Daily Tel. 23 Apr. 3/2 This soullessly efficient show..leaves the viewer feeling neither shaken nor stirred.
ˈsoullessness n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > absence of emotion > [noun] > want of or incapacity for emotion
dryheada1300
lethargyc1380
drynessc1450
dumping1542
unsensibility1551
insensibleness?1555
unsensibleness?1555
stupidity1568
stolidity1570
stupor1570
dumpishness1574
senselessness1577
innaturality1579
astoniedness1580
impassibility1603
stupefaction1603
torpor1607
deadness1611
unsufferance1611
hebetude1621
nonsense1621
drought1622
hebetation1623
obstupefaction1625
unanswerableness1626
tastelessnessa1631
insensateness1646
impassiveness1648
obtuseness1648
barrenness1655
torpulency1657
sterility1661
spiritlessness1669
unspiritedness1669
unaffectedness1678
insensibility1691
stolidness1727
apathy1742
impenetrableness1747
unfeelingness1766
impassivity1794
unfeeling1805
soullessness1811
incommobility1822
obtusity1823
unimpressibleness1830
hardhead1836
stockishness1837
insensitiveness1838
impenetrability1847
unreceptivity1849
unsusceptibility1850
woodenness1854
unimpressionability1862
irresponsiveness1864
unresponsiveness1869
impassibleness1874
irreceptivity1881
unimpressibility1889
apatheia1893
inemotivity1894
affectlessness1921
insensitivity1957
the mind > emotion > suffering > feeling of weariness or tedium > [noun] > state or quality of being wearisome or tedious > lacking inspiration
soullessness1811
uninventiveness1863
1811 in Spirit of Public Jrnls. (1812) 15 181 The soul-lessness of [Marshal Nicolas] Soul-(t).
1834 Ann. Rep. Foreign Missionary Soc. Valley of Mississippi 24 The soullessness of the man who can interpret the writings of John, as if they were a tissue of mere..metaphors.
1919 R. Aldington Let. 29 Jan. in R. Aldington & H. D. Lives in Lett. (2003) 158 You've got to realise..the utter soullessness of the military machine.
1997 S. Heighton Admen move on Lhasa vii. 71 The accruing soullessness of our post-industrial world.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.OE