Literary notes about sapless (AI summary)
Literary writers often employ “sapless” to evoke images of barrenness and lifelessness, both in nature and in human character. The term is used to describe trees and plants stripped of vitality—bare branches, withered trunks, and dried-out foliage that bear no restorative pulse ([1], [2], [3]). At the same time, “sapless” carries a potent metaphorical charge when applied to life itself, suggesting a state devoid of energy, creativity, or emotional depth, as when culture or an individual is likened to a root or trunk lacking vital sap ([4], [5], [6]). In this way, the word bridges the physical depiction of decay with broader existential themes, underscoring a pervasive sense of desolation and unfulfilled potential ([7], [8]).
- but they were too withered to be distinguishable—hung dry and sapless over the edge of a vase of rank-smelling water.
— from Rodmoor: A Romance by John Cowper Powys - The cleared places lay red and baking under the hot August sun; the trees seemed crisp and sapless.
— from The Iron GameA Tale of the War by Henry F. (Henry Francis) Keenan - First the sapless bark flakes and 265 falls piecemeal, and the wind breaks off the brittle twigs and small boughs.
— from A Picture of the Desolated States, and the Work of Restoration. 1865-1868 by J. T. (John Townsend) Trowbridge - Culture merely for culture's sake can never be anything but a sapless root, capable of producing at best a shrivelled branch....
— from Character and ConductA Book of Helpful Thoughts by Great Writers of Past and Present Ages - It is a process which in the course of years dries all the juice out of a familiar verse of Scripture, leaving nothing but a sapless husk behind.
— from Chapters from My Autobiography by Mark Twain - And even so, My Canada, should I forget thee, may my pen fingers become sapless and like to poplar twigs that are blasted by fire.
— from Seeds of Pine by Emily F. (Emily Ferguson) Murphy - As well might you look for good fruit and blossom on a rootless and sapless tree, as for charms that will endure in a feeble and relaxed nature.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë - It was fair and fragrant for fifteen hundred winters, while all around was sapless and dead.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 07, April 1868 to September, 1868 by Various
