makeless
English
Etymology
From Middle English makeles, equivalent to make (“companion, mate, equal, peer”) + -less. Cognate with Danish mageløs (“matchless”), Swedish makalös (“incomparable, peerless, matchless”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /meɪkləs/
Audio (US) (file)
Adjective
makeless (not comparable)
- (archaic, rare) Matchless, without equal, peerless.
- 1578, “The Complaynt of Henry Duke of Buckingham”, in William Baldwin, editor, The last part [part 3] of the Mirour for magistrates, page 140:
- Consider Cyrus in your cruell thought,
A makelesse Prince in riches, and in might.
- 1853, Dante Alighieri, William Cayley, transl., Divine Comedy: The Purgatory, Canto XX, line 97, page 147:
- That which I mentioned of the makeless Bride [translating Italian unica sposa]
Of God the Spirit […]
- 1861 November, Emerald Green, “A Day in the Dublin Exhibition”, in The Family Friend, page 506:
- I just peeped into the Mediæval Court, in search of the mummy of a cat […] a bright-eyed little girl directed me to her ancient feline majesty—a thing shapeless and makeless—done up in that queer old mouldering […]
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- (obsolete) Without a mate; widowed.
- 1591, Robert Wilmot, The tragedie of Tancred and Gismund, Act 2, scene 1:
- For, stoode it with the pleasure of his will
To marrie me, my fortune is not such,
So hard, that I so long should still persist
Makelesse alone in wofull widowhood.
- 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet IX”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, OCLC 216596634:
- The world will wail thee, like a makeless wife.
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Translations
matchless
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widowed
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Anagrams
- Eskmeals