goodless
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English goodles (“poor, without goods or property”), from Old English gōdlēas (“without good, miserable, bad, evil”), equivalent to good + -less.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
goodless (not comparable)
- Without goods or property; destitute.
- 1892, Horace Traubel, The conservator:
- I have therefore declared that it is all one whether a man says "God" or "good:" he is saying the same thing in substance, and cannot be called "godless" until he is goodless.
- 1922, Henry Noel Brailsford, After the peace:
- It may be an exaggeration to suppose that the country deliberately injures itself a little in order to hurt the goodless town more, but it is certainly true that the peasants, farmers and landlords (where these survive) refuse to regard it as any part of their patriotic duty to make the least effort, [...]
- 2009, Alan Brudner, Punishment and Freedom:
- Punishment conceived as the logical nemesis of the criminal's principle is embedded in a goodless normative framework; that is its home.
- Worthless.
- Lacking or devoid of good or goodness.
- 1887, William Channing Gannett, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, The faith that makes faithful:
- If there are souls to whom this world seems a goodless realm, who fail to find divine tokens of love anywhere, you and I are partly responsible.