harmless, a.
(ˈhɑːmlɪs)
[f. harm n. + -less.]
1. Free from harm or injury; unhurt, uninjured, unharmed. Now rare.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 72/39 Harmles he feol and hol man i-novȝ. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 2664 Hypermnestra, To passen harmlesse of that place, She graunted hym. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. ccxiv. 201 The scottes escaped harmelees. 1587 Mirr. Mag., Sabrina xvi, Drowne mee, and let my mother harmlesse goe. 1685 Cotton tr. Montaigne I. 482 Some..undertook by this means..to save harmless the religion of others. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xii, Pecking up her food quite harmless and successful. |
2. Free from loss, free from liability to punishment, or to pay for loss or damage; esp. in to save harmless.
| 1418 E.E. Wills (1882) 33 That þ⊇ same Ionet saue and kepe harmeles myn heirs..a-ȝens Iohn Roe. 1481 Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 46 Yf ye saue me harmles in the spirituel court. 1592 West 1st Pt. Symbol. §103E, That he the same R.S...shall acquite, discharge, and from time to time for euer saue harmelesse the said H.M. and J. his wife. 1651 J. Marius Bills of Exchange 23 Giving Bond to save harmelesse. 1755 N. Magens Insurances I. 112 It was agreed to keep the king harmless. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) IV. 472 A person.. covenanted..that he would save the lessee harmless from any claiming by, from, or under him. |
3. Free from guilt; innocent. arch.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 509 Harmles me him nom, & mid hors to drou, & suþþe anhunge him. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 675 Þe ryȝt-wys man schal se hys face, Þe harmlez haþel schal com hym tylle. 1529 More Dyaloge iv. Wks. 279/1 To the helpe and defence of his good and harmelesse neyghbour, against y⊇ malice and crueltie of y⊇ wrong doer. 1594 1st Pt. Contention vi. 24 In Pomphret Castle harmelesse Richard was shamefully murthered. 1627–77 Feltham Resolves i. xxix. 50 How happy..those things live, that follow harmless Nature? 1863 Mrs. C. Clarke Shaks. Char. v. 134 Up to the very last scene, she bears him harmless of all suspicion. |
4. Doing or causing no harm; not injurious or hurtful; inoffensive, innocuous.
| 1533 More Answ. Poysoned Bk. Wks. 1047/1 They loue better hunger and thurste, then the harmelesse lacke of them bothe. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 71 The sucking Lambe, or harmelesse Doue. 1653 Walton Angler i. 16 The most honest, ingenious, harmless Art of Angling. 1718 Motteux Quix. (1733) II. 279 The harmlessest Fellow in the World. 1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1865) 29 One of the most harmless of human vanities. 1894 J. T. Fowler Adamnan Introd. 32 The harmless snake. |
5. Comb., as harmless-looking.
| 1890 M. Corelli Wormwood III. 248 Liquid..harmless-looking as spring-water. |