no less, adv. and a.
[no adv.2 + less a.]
Not less, as much, in various uses.
1. Used absolutely.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 6915 Fourti winter, an nales. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxvi. 102 The feyndis gaif thame hait leid to laip, Thair lovery wes na less. 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 139, I confesse no lesse. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. IX. 192 That fatall year generally foretold that it would be wonderfull, as it proved no less. 1798 Coleridge Anc. Mar. vi. xvii, The rock shone bright, the kirk no less. 1818 Shelley Eugan. Hills 302 The dun and bladed grass no less, Pointing from this hoary tower. 1847 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 10 John had bid me take two glasses (no less) of Madeira. 1871 R. Ellis tr. Catullus viii. 9 Now she resigns thee; child, do thou resign no less. |
2. Constr. with
than:
a. In reference to number.
| a 1121 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 897 Þy ilcan sumera forwearð no læs þonne xx. scipa mid monnum. |
| 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. ii. i. 379 No lesse Then three great Argosies, besides two Galliasses. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 321 The sacred servants, which were no lesse then sixe thousand. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 46 ¶12 No less than Ten People produced the following Poem. 1801 M. Edgeworth Cast. Rackrent (c 1880) 20 No less than three ladies in our county talked of for his second wife. 1841 Macaulay Warren Hastings Ess. (c 1853) III. 174 Matter for no less than twenty Articles of impeachment. |
b. In reference to comparison or degree.
| 1561 Winȝet Cert. Tractates Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 8 Thay ar na les than the vtheris degenerat ignorantis. 1578 Timme Calvin on Gen. 87 She accounted him no less than a domesticall beast. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 230 The Pilot directed their journey by the Compasse..no lesse then if it had beene at Sea. 1667 Milton P.L. viii. 248 Pleas'd with thy words no less then thou with mine. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 55 ¶4 The Aim of each of them was no less than Universal Monarchy. 1767 Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. I. Pref. 7 Dictated by friendship no less than by conviction. 1822 Shelley tr. Calderon's Mag. Prodig. i. 250, I am Held no less than yourselves to know the limits Of honour and of infamy. 1882 Farrar Early Chr. II. 236 In the Books of Esdras, Enoch and Baruch, no less than in St. John—there are for us some necessary difficulties. |
3. Directly preceding the word qualified (usually with
than following):
a. With verbs.
| 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 11 Plato (whiche otherwyse is a grave Philosopher) did no lesse erre then the other, imagining [etc.]. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 392 Clerke-like experienc'd, which no lesse adornes Our Gentry, then our Parents Noble Names. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 848 Death Grinnd horrible a gastly smile... No less rejoyc'd His mother bad. |
b. With adjectives.
| 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 200 b, Auouchyng hymself to bee no lesse beholdyng to the said Aristotle then to his father. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. i. xv, A history no lesse lamentable then full of dispayre. 1605 Shakes. Macb. iii. i. 136 Whose absence is no lesse materiall to me, Then is his fathers. 1652 Milton Sonn. xvi. To Cromwell, Peace hath her victories No less renownd then warr. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 128 ¶7 The same female Levity is no less fatal to them after Mariage than before. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. v, My little ones were no less busy. 1861 Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 47 The export trade of the Steelyard was no less extensive than its import. 1892 N. Smyth Chr. Eth. i. iii. 158 A moral order no less infrustrable, and as universal in its dominion. |
c. With substantives.
| 1711 Steele Spect. No. 33 ¶1 The Father received his Intelligence with no less Joy than Surprize. 1874 Gladstone Glean. (1879) II. 235 He spoke no less a number of them than twenty-three. 1882 Nature XXVI. 147/2 The no less fertility of ingeniously-devised experiment. |