meedless

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmiːdləs/

Adjective

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.