Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Without hire; not rewarded; gratuitous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Without hire.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Without hire.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

hire +‎ -less

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Examples

  • Coleridge set off on a tour to the north, from Bristol to Sheffield, for the purpose of procuring customers, preaching Unitarian sermons by the way in most of the great towns, "as an hireless volunteer in a blue coat and white waistcoat that not a rag of the woman of Babylon might be seen on me."

    English Men of Letters: Coleridge 1871

  • Shall I not be an Agriculturist, an Husband, a Father, and a 'Priest' after the order of 'Peace'? an 'hireless' Priest?

    Biographia Epistolaris, Volume 1. Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1803

  • Bristol to Sheffield, for the purpose of procuring customers, preaching by the way in most of the great towns, as an hireless volunteer, in a blue coat and white waistcoat, that not a rag of the woman of Babylon might be seen on me.

    Biographia Literaria Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1803

  • [4] hireless Priest of Liberty! unbought teacher of the poor! chearing to me is the reflection that my heart hath ever acknowledged — that my tongue hath proudly proclaimed — the Truth &

    Letter 126 1795

  • _ Off he set on a tour to the north to procure subscribers, "preaching in most of the great towns as a hireless

    Famous Reviews R. Brimley Johnson 1899

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