meedless

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English

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Etymology

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Either formed anew from meed +‎ -less or a calque of Middle English medeles, medles, meydles.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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meedless (comparative more meedless, superlative most meedless)

  1. uncompensated, unrewarded
    • 1877, James A. Martling, transl., The Iliad of Homer. Translated into English Hexameters, Verse for Verse, Book I, Saint Louis: The R. P. Studley Company, [], page 9:
      Therefore hath Far-Darter misfortunes given, and will give; / Nor will he ever withdraw his heavy hands from our ruin, / Ere to her father belovèd the dark-eyed damsel he given, / Ransomless, meedless, and leading a consecrate hundred of oxen / Chrysaward.
    • 1881, Rennell Rodd, “By the South Sea”, in Songs in the South, London: David Bogue, [], page 23:
      The chords of the wonderful harmony / Of the earth and the skies?—if so— / We have talked too long till it all seems vain,— / The desire and the hopes that fired, / The triumphs won and the meedless pain, / And the heart that has hoped is tired.
    • 1893, Charles Alva Lane, “Barcarolle”, in The Open Court. A Weekly Journal Devoted to the Religion of Science, volume VII, Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company, page 3893:
      Is a meedless desiring Life’s sentence and doom? / And the food of his strength, is it doubt? / Nay, wandering Echoes! Ye gladden the gloom, / Though ye breathe wordless messages out!
    • 1896, “Book X”, in Ralph T.H. Griffith, transl., The Hymns of the Rgveda, volume II, Low Price Publications;  [], published 2004, “Hymn LXI”, “10”, page 466:
      They who approached the twice-strong stable’s keeper, meedless, would milk the rocks that naught had shaken.