dateless

Out of one's head; deranged.

Adjective not comparable

  1. Without a date imprinted, assigned, or associated.
    • The other day was dateless, even for my dateless life; for I had forgotten time and had no notion of anything anywhere, when in a small French town I strolled into a cafe noisy with French talk. - 1936, G. K....
  2. Having no date—a meeting with a lover or potential lover.
    • It is hard to believe that she could be dateless on a Saturday night.
    • They were good friends, completely at ease with each other, and when they both ended up dateless on a Friday night, as they often did, they usually ended up eating pizza and watching scary movies together. - 2015,...
  3. Timeless; immortal
    • the dateless and irrevoluble circle of eternity - 1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Causes that hitherto have Hindred it. […], [London]: […] Thomas Vnderhill, →OCLC:
  4. Without a start; immemorial
  5. Without an end; endless
    • Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, / For precious friends hid in death's dateless night - 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 30”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and...

Origin

Coined between 1585 and 1595 from date + -less

Derived

datelessness

Adjective Entry 2

  1. Out of one's head; deranged.
    • Poor soul, she's gone dateless, I think, with care, and watching, and overmuch trouble; and who can wonder? - 1848, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Mary Barton, page 98:
    • and he were put in York prison and tried and hung – hung! Charley! – kind father was hung on a gallows and mother lost sense and grew silly in grief and we were like to be turned on t' wide world and poor mother...
    • An' they geet howd on her, and carried her into Sally Grimshaw's, an' laid her upo' th' couch cheer, as dateless as a stone ! - 1881, Edwin Waugh, “The Dead Man's Dinner”, in Tufts of heather, page 307:
  2. Thick-headed.
    • Into the court you'd swanned, you dateless little pillock, if not wholly confident of winning, surely careless of losing. - 1997, Peter O'Toole, Loitering with Intent: The Apprentice, →ISBN, page 281:
    • You dateless fool, you stupid ass, clamped to / This crag for all eternity - 1976, Fred Beake, Legends from Mammon, page 8:
    • "You dateless article," stormed his father, leaving Bennett to realise in his laconic way that he was, and probably always would be, a disappointment to Dad. - 2001 August 4, Lynne Walker, “Classical: Musical portrait...

    Synonyms: addlebrained addlepated airheaded bee-brained beef-witted beefheaded beetle-headed birdbrained blockheaded Boeotian boneheaded boofheaded braindead brainless bubbleheaded buffle-headed bullet-headed cerebrally challenged childish chowderheaded chuckleheaded crackbrained cretinous daft

Origin

Unknown. Perhaps derived from Old English þeatless (“thoughtless, without plan”). See also deedless.

Forms

more dateless most dateless