virtuelessadj.

a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) vii. l. 1319 The seconde [star] is noght vertules; Clota or elles Pliades It hatte.

a1413 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (Pierpont Morgan) (1881) ii. l. 344 Wo worth þe faire gemme vertules wo worth þat herbe also þat doth no bote.

1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Mark ix. 58 In the presence of the disciples they depraued the name of Jesu, as a thing vertuelesse, and of no efficacie.

1600 E. Fairfax tr. T. Tasso Godfrey of Bulloigne vi. lxviii. 107 And vertuelesse she wisht all herbes and charmes, Wherewith false men encrease their patients harmes.

c1642 Observ. his Majesty's late Answers & Expresses 9 Parliaments are thus vertulesse and void Courts.

1733 J. Leake Scholar's Man. 4 All second and instrumental Causes together with Nature itself, without that operative Faculty which God gave them, would become altogether silent, virtueless, and dead.

1798 C. Brown Treat. Scrophulous Dis. viii. 138 The remedies which from time to time have been used for the cure of Scrophula, are no less multifarious than virtueless.

1824 New Monthly Mag. 10 264 The winds of March..are far from being virtueless.

1856 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters III. 65 The architecture of Palladio is wholly virtueless and despicable.

1920 P. Rosenfeld Musical Portraits 245 Certain of his songs..would be virtueless enough were it not for the windy freshness that pervades them.

2004 Philadelphia Inquirer 16 May n11/4 The tendency in backpacker guidebooks to extol the virtues of virtueless places.

1402 T. Hoccleve Lepistre Cupide (Huntington) l. 262 in Minor Poems (1970) ii. 301 Swiche filthes [i.e. low women] þat wern vertulees, They qwitten thus thise olde Clerkes wyse.

a1456 (a1407) H. Scogan Moral Balade (Ashm.) l. 133 in F. J. Furnivall Chaucer's Minor Poems (1879) iii. 430/2 Þat whane yee come in-to youre Iuges presence Yee be not sette as vertulesse by-hinde.

1533 T. More Apologye x. f. 77^v How bad so euer they reken me, I am not yet fully so vertulesse, but that [etc.].

1594 O. B. Questions Profitable Concernings 23 The strange and monstrous life and death, of a vertulesse recreant.

1602 T. Heywood How Man may chuse Good Wife sig. A3^v Oh too vnkind vnto so kind a wife, Too virtules [printed vritules] to one so vertuous.

1650 T. Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine ii. iv. 113 We know the wicked mans..name, and yet..his virtueless name shall rot.

1803 M. Charlton Wife & Mistress (ed. 2) I. 307 You are not to become a worthless, virtueless, shameless fine lady.

1899 M. Fisher Gen. Surv. Amer. Lit. iv. 83 The faultless hero and virtueless villain were two favorite types of human nature.

1912 F. C. Ottman Imperialism & Christ i. 23 Of these women three..were notorious for their virtueless lives.

1970 Dædalus 99 604 A profession..may abide by the virtueless doctrine that its services are for those who can afford them.

2002 B. Joyce Deadly Desire xviii. 302 This woman was a virtueless viper.

1891 H. S. Constable Horses, Sport & War 221 The cowardice, imbecility, and virtuelessness of the other classes.

2006 H. Rowland More than meets Eye vi. 158 A story of two horses who illustrate the virtue of good humor and the virtuelessness of its opposite.