bloodless

• bloudless (obsolete)

From Middle English blodles, from Old English blōdlēas (“bloodless”), equivalent to blood +‎ -less. Cognate with Dutch bloedeloos (“bloodless”), German blutlos (“bloodless”), Danish blodløs (“bloodless”), Swedish blodlös (“bloodless”), Icelandic blóðlaus (“bloodless”).

bloodless (comparative more bloodless, superlative most bloodless)

1. Lacking blood; ashen, anaemic.
   • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act III, Scene 1,

     Thou dost not slumber: see, thy two sons’ heads,

     Thy warlike hand, thy mangled daughter here:

     Thy other banish’d son, with this dear sight

     Struck pale and bloodless; and thy brother, I,

     Even like a stony image, cold and numb.

   • 1956, James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room, Penguin, 2001, Part One, Chapter 2,

     The face was white and thoroughly bloodless with some kind of foundation cream; it stank of powder and a gardenia-like perfume.

2. Taking place without loss of blood.

   a bloodless conquest; a bloodless coup d'état; a bloodless revolution; a bloodless victory

3. Lacking emotion, passion or vivacity.
   • 1937, “No. 1 Rumanian,” Time, 8 February, 1937,

     Those Philharmonic subscribers who considered Guest Conductor Igor Stravinsky too bloodless and ascetic […] last week found his successor, Georges Enesco, more to their taste.

• bloodlessly
• bloodlessness