makeless en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- (US) audio
- /ˈmeɪkləs/
Etymology
From Middle English makeles, equivalent to make (“companion, mate, equal, peer”) + -less. Cognate with Danish mageløs (“matchless”), Swedish makalös (“incomparable, peerless, matchless”).
Meanings
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(archaic, not-comparable, rare) Matchless, without equal, peerless.
That which I mentioned of the makeless Bride [translating Italian unica sposa] Of God the Spirit[…]
1853, Dante Alighieri, translated by William Cayley, Divine Comedy: The Purgatory, Canto XX, line 97, page 147: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[…]
1861 November, Emerald Green, “A Day in the Dublin Exhibition”, in The Family Friend, page 506:Consider Cyrus in your cruell thought, A makelesse Prince in riches, and in might.
1578, “The Complaynt of Henry Duke of Buckingham”, in William Baldwin, editor, The last part [part 3] of the Mirour for magistrates, page 140:
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(not-comparable, obsolete) Without a mate; widowed.
The world will wail thee, like a makeless wife.
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: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.
1591, Robert Wilmot, The tragedie of Tancred and Gismund, act 2, scene 1:
Translations (2)
nl geweeuwd (widowed) · nl onvergelijkelijk (matchless)