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. (British, dialect, slang) Thick-headed.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:stupid

   • 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, “Classical: Musical portrait of the artist as a young man”, in The Independent‎:

     "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

Adjective

dateless (not comparable)

1. Without a date imprinted, assigned, or associated.
   • 1936, G. K. Chesterton, The Autobiography:

     The other day was dateless, even for my dateless life; for I had forgotten time and had no notion of anything anywhere, when in a small French town I strolled into a cafe noisy with French talk.

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.

   • 2015, Cathryn Fox, Love Lessons, →ISBN:

     They were good friends, completely at ease with each other, and when they both ended up dateless on a Friday night, as they often did, they usually ended up eating pizza and watching scary movies together.

3. Timeless; immortal
   • 1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC:

     the dateless and irrevoluble circle of eternity

4. Without a start; immemorial
5. (archaic) Without an end; endless
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 30”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. , London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

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

References

Anagrams

• detassel, tasseled