Either formed anew frommeed +-less or acalque ofMiddle Englishmedeles,medles,meydles.
meedless (comparativemoremeedless,superlativemostmeedless)
- uncompensated,unrewarded
1877, James A. Martling, transl.,The Iliad of Homer. Translated into English Hexameters, Verse for Verse, Book I, Saint Louis: The R. P. Studley Company, […], page 9:Therefore hath Far-Darter misfortunes given, and will give; / Nor will he ever withdraw his heavy hands from our ruin, / Ere to her father belovèd the dark-eyed damsel he given, / Ransomless,meedless, and leading a consecrate hundred of oxen / Chrysaward.
1881,Rennell Rodd, “By the South Sea”, inSongs in the South, London: David Bogue, […], page23:The chords of the wonderful harmony / Of the earth and the skies?—if so— / We have talked too long till it all seems vain,— / The desire and the hopes that fired, / The triumphs won and themeedless pain, / And the heart that has hoped is tired.
1896, “Book X”, inRalph T.H. Griffith, transl.,The Hymns of theRgveda, volume II, Low Price Publications; […], published2004,“Hymn LXI”, “10”, page466:They who approached the twice-strong stable’s keeper,meedless, would milk the rocks that naught had shaken.
