dateless

dateless

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdeɪtlɪs/

• Audio (AU)

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Etymology 1

Unknown. Perhaps derived from Old English þeatless (“thoughtless', "without plan”). See also deedless.

Adjective

dateless (comparative more dateless, superlative most dateless)

1. Out of one's head; deranged.
   • 1848, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Mary Barton, page 98:

     Poor soul, she's gone dateless, I think, with care, and watching, and overmuch trouble; and who can wonder?

   • 1863, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Sylvia's Lovers‎, page 135:

     and he were put in York prison and tried and hung - hung! Charley! - kind father was hung on a gallows and mother lost sense and grew silly in grief and we were like to be turned on t' wide world and poor mother dateless

   • 1881, Edwin Waugh, “The Dead Man's Dinner”, in Tufts of heather, page 307:

     An' they geet howd on her, and carried her into Sally Grimshaw's, an' laid her upo' th' couch cheer, as dateless as a stone !

2. (Britain, dialectal, slang) thick-headed

   They're so dateless that Burger King will not offer them a job.

   • 1997, Peter O'Toole, Loitering with Intent: The Apprentice‎, →ISBN, page 281:

     Into the court you'd swanned, you dateless little pillock, if not wholly confident of winning, surely careless of losing.

   • 1976, Fred Beake, Legends from Mammon‎, page 8:

     You dateless fool, you stupid ass, clamped to / This crag for all eternity

   • 2001, August 4, “Lynne Walker”, in Classical: Musical portrait of the artist as a young man‎:

     "You dateless article," stormed his father, leaving Bennett to realise in his laconic way that he was, and probably always would be, a disappointment to Dad.

Etymology 2

Coined between 1585 and 1595 from date +‎ -less[1][2]

Adjective

dateless (not comparable)

1. Without a date imprinted, assigned, or associated.
2. Having no date—a meeting with a lover or potential lover.

   It is hard to believe that she could be dateless on a Saturday night.

3. Timeless; immortal
   • Milton

     the dateless and irrevoluble circle of eternity

4. Without a start; immemorial
5. (archaic) Without an end; endless
   • William Shakespeare, Sonnet XXX,

     Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, / For precious friends hid in death's dateless night

References

1. “Dateless” at Dictionary.com
2. “Dateless” in Merriam-Webster

Anagrams

• detassel, tasseled