Definition of "portionless" []

• Lacking a portion. (adjective)

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• "Ignorant who were my parents, doubtful whether the alliance might not prove disgraceful to him — portionless, except for the bounty of my benefactress — unclaimed, unacknowledged by any one; how could I hope to be received into her family under these disadvantageous circumstances?"
• "Yet such conduct, however unusual, was equally inconsistent with any sinister intentions; since the sacrifice of a large sum of money, and the declaration of his views upon a portionless young lady of family, could scarcely be the preface to any unfair practice."
• "She had often protested, in their former conflicts, that had Cecilia been portionless, her objections had been less than to an estate so conditioned; and that to give to her son a woman so exalted in herself, she would have conquered the mere opposition of interest, though that of family honour she held invincible."