lustless, a. Now rare or Obs.
(ˈlʌstlɪs)
[f. lust n. + less.]
† 1. Without vigour or energy: = listless. Obs.
| c 1325 Old Age xi. in E.E.P. (1862) 150 Þe tunge..lostles lowteþ in uch a liþ. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iv. ix. (Tollem. MS.), A verry flewmatike man is in the body lustles [L. deses], heuy and slow. c 1412 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 3881 Whan þat þe paunche is ful, A fume clymbith vp in-to þe heed, And makiþ a man al lustles and al dul. 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. 2 Tim. 24 Preache the worde of the ghospel stronglye, nether beyng frayed with aduersitie nor lustles in prosperitie. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. iv. 20 For in his lustlesse limbs..A shaking fever raignd continually. 1611 Cotgr., Detalenté,..vnwilling, lustlesse, vndisposed, out of the humor. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xiii. 56 The Throstell, with shrill Sharps; as purposely he song T'awake the lustlesse Sunne. |
† 2. Joyless; without pleasure or delight. Obs.
| 1508 Dunbar Tua mariit wemen 441 Ȝone lustlese led so lelely scho luffit hir husband. a 1585 Sidney Arcadia, etc. (1622) 493 A lustless song. |
3. Without lust or sexual appetite.
| 1586 Marlowe 1st Pt. Tamburl. iii. (1590) C 7, He shall be made a chast and lustlesse Eunuke. 1610 Healey St. Aug. Citie of God xxii. xxiv. (1620) 848 The time shall come when we shall doe nothing but enioy our (lustlesse) beauties. 1611 Cotgr., Priapisme, a lustlesse extention, or swelling of the yard. |
Hence † ˈlustlessness.
| 1556 Olde Antichrist 5 To dryue all lustlesnesse and sluggish drowsynes out of our myndes. 1611 Cotgr., Chasteté, chastitie, continencie, lustlesnesse. |