motiveless

English

Etymology

From motive +‎ -less.

Adjective

motiveless (not comparable)

1. Without a motive.

   This seems to have been a motiveless crime: no money was stolen, and nobody had cause to hate the victim.

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 167:

     He was interested in their genuine, yet refined simplicity; and, moreover, the most worn and worldly natures vindicate their humanity by occasional preferences and motiveless likings.

Derived terms

• motivelessly
• motivelessness