dreadless

English

Etymology

From Middle English dredles, dredeles, equivalent to dread +‎ -less.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹɛdləs/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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Adjective

dreadless (comparative more dreadless, superlative most dreadless)

1. Feeling no dread or fear; unafraid.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     So doubly is distrest twixt ioy and cares / The dreadlesse courage of this Elfin knight, / Hauing escapt so sad ensamples in his sight.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 40, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     And to make shew of his dreadlesse magnanimitie, having caused a pan of burning coales to be brought, he saw and suffred his right arme […] to be parched and wel-nigh rosted-off […].

2. (obsolete) Exempt from danger which causes dread; secure.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene:

     Safe in his dreadless den.

Derived terms

• dreadlessness

Anagrams

• resaddles