thoughtlessadj.

1544 P. Betham tr. Purlilia Precepts War Ep. sig. Aiii^v He saued the cytye of Rome from fyr,..and thoughtlesse for hys owne lyfe, vanquyshed the cursed conspiracye of Catiline.

1612 I. M. tr. Most Famous Hist. Meruine i. xvii. 115 The spie led the way, and Meruine folowed him, whose hart was thoughtles of any treason.

?1615 G. Chapman tr. Homer Odysses (new ed.) v. 19 He..Finds you so thoughtlesse of him, and his birth.

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics iii, in tr. Virgil Wks. 116 A Snake..Leaving his Nest..thoughtless of his Egs. View more context for this quotation

1722 D. Defoe Jrnl. Plague Year (1990) 210 As lavish, as extravagant, and as thoughtless for to-morrow as ever.

1725 E. Fenton in A. Pope et al. tr. Homer Odyssey I. iv. 716 The royal guest Thoughtless of ill, accepts the fraudful feast.

1743 E. Young Complaint: Night the Fourth 22 Men homage pay to Men, Thoughtless beneath whose dreadful Eye they bow.

1804 Times 13 Nov. 2/2 With all the inconsiderate bravery of a generous tar, thoughtless of his own danger, he rushed among the sanguinary multitude.

1812 G. Crabbe Tales i. 18 A foolish puppy who had left the pack, Thoughtless what foe was threat'ning at his back.

1856 J. E. R. Hornblower Nellie of Truro xl. 278 She had continued through the long years of married life the course begun in youth, utterly thoughtless whether there might not be a more excellent way.

1860 H. Law Christ is All 86 Many sport through life, thoughtless that they are thus in misery's land.

1884 ‘M. O'Rell’ John Bull's Womankind xxi. 229 Unions and other houses of refuge for old age are not instituted to encourage them to be careless and thoughtless for the morrow.

1912 H. M. Tomlinson Sea & Jungle v. 269 I suppose men do plucky things because they are largely thoughtless of the danger of the things they do.

1995 M. Billig Banal Nationalism v. 125 Daily, I scan the papers for yet more scores, thoughtless of the future to which this routine activity might be pointing.

1592 T. Kyd Spanish Trag. iv. sig. I3^v Nor thinke, I thoughtles thinke vpon a meane, To let his death be vnreueng'd at full.

1611 J. Florio Queen Anna's New World of Words Inpensierato, thoughtlesse, carelesse.

1684 Earl of Roscommon Ess. Translated Verse 16 But what a thoughtless Animal is Man, (How very Active in his own Trepan!).

a1704 T. Brown Satyr against Woman in Wks. (1707) I. i. 82 Weak Curses..For thoughtless Crimes, which come out of thy kind.

1736 Bp. J. Butler Analogy of Relig. i. ii. 38 Youth may be alledged as an Excuse for Rashness and Folly, as being naturally thoughtless.

1809 T. Batchelor Orthoëpical Anal. Dial. Bedfordshire v, in Orthoëpical Anal. Eng. Lang. 141 Ram stam, thoughtless, rash, headstrong.

1849 B. Taylor in Life & Lett. I. vii. 149 I shall neither be rash nor thoughtless.

1890 Times 12 Feb. 5/1 As long as they thought the Duke would escape scot free they saw only thoughtless heroism in his act.

1934 Amer. Home July 82/2 In the little matter of December 25th, with all manner of gift advisors..and personal servitors surrounding you like a bodyguard, the moment you enter a store of any kind, thoughtless giving is difficult to accomplish.

1972 Musical Times 113 549/2 Excessive speed which may make for reduced clarity, as well as thoughtless errors and confusing corrections.

2000 Z. Smith White Teeth (2001) xiii. 373 With the same thoughtless balls he used when chatting up dolly birds and disco brains, with the guts of a man who had no qualms about talking to strangers.

1594 C. Marlowe & T. Nashe Dido iv. i. And I will either moue the thoughtles flint, Or drop out both mine eyes in drisling teares.

1668 N. Fairfax Let. 18 Feb. in H. Oldenburg Corr. (1967) IV. 183 As most of these can scarce be made out by ye Mechanical solution of yt lightsom Gent. Mr Glanvile..so, if there may be foreboding dreams of things, wch thoughtless beings ar imployd to bring about, neither then will our unriddleing of it thus serve ye turn.

1693 J. Norris Pract. Disc. Divine Subj. III. 31 Bodies have no Thought, therefore they produce none... For how can a Thoughtless Principle produce a Thought?

c1705 G. Berkeley Commonplace Bk. in Wks. (1871) IV. 469 Extension to exist in a thoughtless thing (or rather in a thing void of perception),..is a contradiction.

1757 ‘T. Botanista’ Rural Beauties p. xxvii Would Fate or Chance, those blind and thoughtless Principles.., have consulted likewise for the ornament of the one, and the delight and entertainment of the other?

1673 H. N. Payne Morning Ramble i. 2 Why, this 'tis, not to understand Drinking, it makes one as dull and thoughtless as a Countrey Curate, that lives upon six pounds, and a cast Cassock two and fifty Sundayes.

1682 J. Dryden Mac Flecknoe 4 Shad[well] never deviates into Sence.., his goodly Fabrick..seems design'd for thoughtless Majesty.

1717 A. Pope Epil. Jane Shore in Wks. 411 As a blockhead rubs his thoughtless skull, And thanks his stars he was not born a fool.

1746 E. Haywood Female Spectator No. 24 (1748) IV. 305 Being a fool, [she] was thoughtless, giddy, and unmeaning.

1807 G. Crabbe Parish Reg. i, in Poems 35 Fear, shame, and want, the thoughtless herd pursue.

1848 A. Steinmetz Hist. Jesuits II. vii. 94 In those days, as at the present time, it was easy to rouse the thoughtless multitude.

1893 E. F. Knight Where Three Empires Meet iii. 43 The handful of British men and women who encamp..outside that teeming city..are not altogether unlike the thoughtless population that lived under Vesuvius of old.

1947 New Statesman 22 Nov. 404/3 The Garry Allighan affair has done great harm in confirming in the minds of thoughtless people the smear stories about politicians that are put about by people who are not thoughtless.

2001 S. Greenblatt Hamlet in Purgatory (2002) iii. 146 An anonymous, generalized category, the ‘all Christian souls’ casually invoked in a ritual phrase by thoughtless children.

1799 A. Plumptre tr. A. von Kotzebue Force of Calumny v. v. 95 A thoughtless word trips lightly over the tongue; but it cannot be recalled by the Almighty himself.

1805 W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. 20 123 This thoughtless jumble of terms, this confused puddle of phrases.

a1878 B. Taylor Stud. German Lit. (1879) 194 He was an earnest thinker in a thoughtless time.

1918 Theosophist Feb. 487 A frequent but thoughtless argument for vivisection is that God put the animals here for our use and benefit.

1958 New Statesman 19 July 90/1 The argument about self-preservation and deterrence is trivial and thoughtless.

1978 Compar. Lit. 30 293 He relates several anecdotes about craftsmen whose skill cannot be perfected without prolonged concentration and practice; only then can they perform with an apparently thoughtless ease.

2005 Daily Tel. 19 Jan. 22/1 The thoughtless, boiled-down language acceptable to Stalinist censors.

a1731 P. Aubin Lucinda in Coll. Hist. & Novels (1739) I. 252 How can a noble Soul whose delight it is to do merciful and generous Actions, be pleased in giving Misery and Pain? When you act thus you are thoughtless of a Parent's Care, or of a filial Duty, a Return unworthy for the Life they gave you.

1743 E. Young Complaint: Night the Fourth 31 Nor are our Brothers thoughtless of their Kin, Yet absent.

1808 E. Hamilton Cottagers of Glenburnie ii. 36 Though thoughtless of my wants, she was in other respects very kind to me.

1866 ‘Ouida’ Chandos II. vi. ii. 299 But, poverina, you look feverish and tired. I have been thoughtless for you.

1903 A. Adams Log of Cowboy xxi. 333 I'm going to stew a saucepan full of it, just to show his royal nibs that he's been thoughtless of his boarders.

1911 J. Masefield Jim Davis iv. 55 My aunt said Something about ‘giving a lot of trouble’ and ‘being very thoughtless for others’.

1935 Q. H. Simpson Let. 26 Apr. in P. Neary White Tie & Decorations (1997) 146 It is not only the shopkeepers who are cruelly selfish & thoughtless for their employees.

1978 Times 7 Nov. 6/7 The seven teachers were branded as inefficient, disobedient and thoughtless of their pupils' welfare.

1992 Jrnl. Afr. Law 36 133 The accused told the Court that his wife had been constantly unfaithful, thoughtless of his emotional feelings, had an obsession with money and had a tendency to walk out on him.

2006 W. Fox Theory Gen. Ethics iv. 102 Many buildings represent..responses that seem to be so thoughtless of their contexts that they ‘stick out like sore thumbs’.

1794 W. Blake Fly in Songs of Experience in Compl. Poetry & Prose (1982) 23 Little Fly, Thy summers play, My thoughtless hand Has brush'd away.

1801 C. B. Brown Jane Talbot iii. 10 My mother, on her death-bed, was anxious to see him, but he had strolled away after some boyish amusement, with companions as thoughtless as himself.

1816 J. Austen Emma II. xiii. 209 That young man (speaking lower) is very thoughtless. Do not tell his father, but that young man is not quite the thing. He has been opening the doors very often this evening, and keeping them open very inconsiderately.

1885 ‘Mrs. Alexander’ Valerie's Fate v You do not know what a thoughtless, heartless stupid I have been.

1914 E. R. Burroughs Tarzan of Apes xiii. 170 A thousand pardons. It was quite thoughtless of me, yes—very thoughtless.

1960 Spectator 19 Feb. 244 The nightsoil collectors of Lagos's slums were so thoughtless as to go on strike.

1996 E. McCracken Giant's House 62 Frame the form letters to the thoughtless people who kept books too long and the hopeful people who returned them late but never paid the fines.