ˈvoiceless, a.
[f. voice n. + -less.]
1. Having no voice; destitute of the power of utterance; uttering no words or speech; dumb, mute.
In group (b) applied to immaterial things.
| (a) 1535 Coverdale Acts viii. 32 As a lambe voycelesse before his sherer so opened he not his mouth. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam x. xii, Peace in the silent streets! save when the cries Of victims to their fiery judgement led, Made pale their voiceless lips. 1849 De Quincey Eng. Mail-Coach iii. iv. Wks. 1890 XIII. 325 Clinging to the horns of the altar, voiceless she stood. 1859 Tennyson Enid 1115 Mute As creatures voiceless thro' the fault of birth. 1873 Black Pr. Thule ii, Lavender did not care to remain among those voiceless monuments of a forgotten past. |
| absol. 1855 Singleton Virgil II. 108 He of the voiceless both a council calls And gains the knowledge of their lives. 1893 M. Pemberton Iron Pirate xxiv, The men waited for some seconds silent as the voiceless. |
| (b) 1816 Byron Monody on Sheridan 10 Who hath not shared that calm so still and deep, The voiceless thought which would not speak but weep. 1883 Fortn. Rev. Dec. 766 It is the public good which is so often powerless and voiceless in presence of the audacity of private wrong. 1891 Farrar Darkn. & Dawn liv, The deadly wrong..had excited an indignation..which, though it was voiceless, had made itself felt. |
b. Having no voice in the control or management of affairs.
| a 1634 Coke Inst. iv. i. (1648) 5 The Proctors of the Clergy..were voicelesse Assistants;..and having no voices, and so many learned Bishops having voices, their presence is not now holden necessary. |
c. Failing, unable, or not attempting, to express one's feelings or opinions; silent, mute. Also
absol.| 1863 J. G. Holland Lett. to Joneses ix. (1864) 129 The world will never come to you..you must go to the world or die voiceless. 1884 Pall Mall G. 28 June 1/1 The surrender of the voiceless, helpless masses of the population to their Turkish taskmasters. 1890 C. W. R. Cooke 4 Y. in Parl. 69 By the voiceless I mean the men who have the capacity to speak, and the desire, but have missed their opportunities. |
2. Characterized by the absence of sound; in or on which no voice or sound is heard; silent, still.
In this and the two following senses chiefly
poet. or
rhet.| 1815 Shelley Alastor 662 Motionless, As their own voiceless earth and vacant air. 1820 Byron Juan iii. lxxxvi, On thy voiceless shore The heroic lay is tuneless now. 1850 S. Dobell Roman viii. 27 The sweet content of voiceless woods After the nightingale. 1868 Lockyer Guillemin's Heavens (ed. 3) 156 To an inhabitant of the Earth, our light-giver by night would appear..but a silent and voiceless desert. |
3. Not expressed or uttered by the voice or in speech; unspoken, unuttered.
| 1816 Byron Ch. Har. iii. xcvii, I live and die unheard, With a most voiceless thought, sheathing it as a sword. 1839 Longfellow Footsteps of Angels ix, Uttered not, yet comprehended, Is the spirit's voiceless prayer. 1862 T. C. Grattan Beaten Paths II. 218 A dead silence followed the fall of the curtain; and I felt..the voiceless verdict of ‘damnation’. 1865 C. Stanford Symb. Christ xi. (1878) 296 Secret as the voiceless language of the soul. |
4. Characterized by, or causing, loss of speech or vocal utterance; speechless.
| 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. lxxix, The Niobe of nations! there she stands, Childless and crownless, in her voiceless woe. 1843 Chambers's Edin. Jrnl. 47/2 Her lips parted with a voiceless agony. 1879 Tourgee Fool's Err. xxxiv. 225 Dumb mouths which spoke of the voiceless agony of death. |
5. Phonology. Produced or uttered without voice or vocalic tone; surd. Said
esp. of certain consonants in opposition to
voiced ppl. a. 3.
| 1867 A. M. Bell Visible Sp. 67 Where the voiceless correspondent of a vocal consonant is separately heard. 1874 Ellis E.E. Pronunc. iv. xi. 1333 The great relations between voiced and voiceless consonants. 1877 Sweet Handbk. Phonetics 75 Consonants with voiceless stop and breath off-glide are called ‘breath’ or ‘voiceless’ stops. |