spotless, a.
(ˈspɒtlɪs)
Also 4 -lez, 6 -les, 6–7 -lesse.
[f. spot n.1 Cf. WFlem. spotteloos.]
1. Free from spot or stain; not marked with, or disfigured by, spots; of a pure or uniform colour.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 856 Of spotlez perlez þay beren þe creste. 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. i. i. 182 The people of Rome.. Send thee..This Palliament of white and spotlesse Hue. 1606 Marston Parasitaster iv. G 4, Vntrodden snow is not so spotless. 1653 R. Sanders Physiogn. 157 The body being clear, fair, pure, neat, and spotless. 1726–46 Thomson Winter 812 Fair ermines, spotless as the snows they press. 1853 C. Brontë Villette xxiii, The bed seemed to me like snow-drift and mist—spotless, soft, and gauzy. 1876 M. E. Braddon J. Haggard's Dau. II. 15 The red-brick floor spotless as if it were a floor in a picture. |
b. In specific names.
| 1827 Griffith tr. Cuvier V. 274 The Ai seems to vary considerably as the Spotless Ai, the Yellow-faced Ai. 1832 J. Rennie Consp. Butterfl. & Moths 19 The Spotless Brown (Polyommatus Titus). Ibid. 188 The Spotless Straw (Depressaria immaculana). |
2. fig. Free from stain or blot; immaculate, pure.
| 1577 [see spottiness]. 1590 Spenser Tears Muses 388 Sweete Loue deuoyd of villanie..But pure and spotles. 1634 W. Tirwhyt tr. Balzac's Lett. 318, I..do protest unto you..that my fidelity is spotless. 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 318 How have ye..banisht from mans life..Simplicitie and spotless innocence. 1738 Wesley Ps. cxxi. vi, Like thy spotless Master thou, Fill'd with Wisdom, Love and Power. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxxiii. III. 333 The people applauded his spotless integrity. 1836 Thirlwall Greece xiv. II. 228 His mother's reputation was not deemed spotless. 1875 Manning Mission H. Ghost xii. 331 So, I may say, all are bound to live a life that is spotless before God. |
| absol. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis liv, O you spotless, who have the right of capital punishment vested in you. |
b. Guiltless or innocent
of something.
rare—1.
| 1619 Fletcher, etc. Knt. Malta ii. v, Ye fight for her, as spotless of these mischiefs, As heaven is of our sins. |