sapless
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]sapless (comparative more sapless, superlative most sapless)
- (of a plant) Lacking in sap.
- 1819 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ode to the West Wind”, in Prometheus Unbound […], London: C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier […], published 1820, →OCLC, part III, stanza III, pages 190-191:
- […] Thou
For whose path the Atlantic’s level powers
Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know
Thy voice, and suddenly grow grey with fear,
And tremble to despoil themselves: O, hear!
- 1861, Oliver Wendell Holmes, chapter 13, in Elsie Venner[1], volume I, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, page 234:
- Below, all their earthward-looking branches are sapless and shattered, splintered by the weight of many winters’ snows; above, they are still green and full of life, but their summits overtop all the deciduous trees around them, and in their companionship with heaven they are alone.
- (figuratively, of a person etc.) Lacking vivacity.
- 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:
- O young John Talbot! I did send for thee
To tutor thee in stratagems of war,
That Talbot’s name might be in thee revived
When sapless age and weak unable limbs
Should bring thy father to his drooping chair.
- 1638, George Herbert, “Nature”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, 5th edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] T[homas] Buck, and R[oger] Daniel, printers to the Universitie of Cambridge, →OCLC:
- O smooth my rugged heart, and there
Engrave thy rev’rend Law and fear:
Or make a new one, since the old
Is saplesse grown,
And a much fitter stone
To hide my dust, then thee to hold.