strengthlessadj.
/ˈstrɛŋ(k)θləs/, U.S. /ˈstrɛŋ(k)θləs/ Having no strength (in various senses).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > bodily constitution > bodily weakness > [adjective]
wokec897
unstronga900
unmightyeOE
feeblec1175
strengthlessc1175
unwieldc1220
weaka1300
frailc1384
unwieldyc1386
unthendec1425
dissolutec1450
unsure?a1475
feyc1475
simple1477
unfirm1483
unsinewed?1541
wash1548
weakling1557
ladylike1566
silly1567
water weak1592
washya1631
wankle1686
foible1715
unmuscular1725
nerveless1792
wankly1795
shilpit1813
wankya1825
sinewless1829
weedy-looking1835
queachy1859
insubstantiala1861
paper-backed1888
weak-fleshed1967
society > armed hostility > defence > [adjective] > defended > not defended
strengthlessc1175
undefenced1451
unfenced1548
unflanked1553
the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > disadvantage > uselessness > uselessness, vanity, or futility > [adjective] > ineffective > without force or cogency
over-feeble?c1225
void1526
unforcible1597
strengthlessa1603
invalidous1611
invalid1643
evanid1646
non est1858
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 12530 Þe deofell wennde aweȝȝ anan. Forrshamedd off himm sellfenn. Off þatt he wass all strenncþelæs Onn ȝæn þatt newe kemmpe.
c1330 in R. H. Robbins Hist. Poems 14th & 15th Cent. (1959) 141 For on is two, þat lond is streinþeles.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. John xvi. 29–33 The tyme is full nyghe that ye shall declare howe strengthelesse ye are of your selfes.
1594 Willobie his Auisa xlix. f. 45 You are the chieftaine, that haue layd This heauie siege to strengthlesse fort.
a1603 T. Cartwright Confut. Rhemists New Test. (1618) 155 A vaine and superstitious feare of the Popes strengthlesse curse.
1681 F. Philipps Ursa Major & Minor 24 Yet from his Beer..or Ale, the best must be taken off, and the remainder being only water half boiled flung upon the strengthless grains is sent and served to the House-keeper.
1749 M. Browne Sunday Thoughts: Pt. I 22 His voice shou'd lamb-like hearts more softly call; Gently reduct, their strengthless faintings cheer, And rest them, safely lodg'd, within the fold.
1782 G. A. Stevens Songs, Comic & Satyrical (ed. 2) 58 The churl Made a strengthless attempt to be rude with my girl.
1838 J. C. Hare & A. W. Hare Guesses at Truth (ed. 2) 1st Ser. 299 The laws we have imposed on ourselves, knowing how baseless and strengthless they are, we are impatient to throw off.
1883 M. B. Betham-Edwards Disarmed xvi The listener sank back in his chair, white and strengthless, as if stricken with a blow.
1947 ‘L. O'Donnell’ in Astounding Sci. Fiction May 49/2 He had to hold the bar to keep himself upright, for his knees were strengthless beneath him.
1961 H. Calisher False Entry ii. vii. 141 By hint and suggestion, never saying an explicit word, but lapping me in the strengthless flow of his ‘tell-you-whats’, his ‘sorries’, he made me see what he skirted.
2010 Defending Planet Earth (National Res. Council (U.S.)) 62 Physically weak bodies (e.g., highly porous and strengthless rubble piles) are likely to be disrupted during atmospheric entry.
Derivatives
ˈstrengthlessly adv.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > bodily constitution > bodily weakness > [adverb]
faintlyc1320
weakly1398
unthendelyc1440
lankly1611
flaggingly1693
strengthlessly1820
punily1827
nervelessly1836
flaccidly1847
limply1869
1820 J. C. Hare tr. F. H. K. de La Motte Fouqué Sintram & Compan. xxv. 229 Biorn sank strengthlessly [Ger. ohnmächtig] slumbering back upon his seat.
1877 J. Hawthorne Garth II. vii. liv. 291 The fingers of one hand were fumbling strengthlessly at a grey twist of silky material.
1943 R. P. Warren At Heaven's Gate xxv. 361 She..tried to rise up, but..her body seemed to be nothing, to be flowing away strengthlessly.
1967 Kenyon Rev. 29 449 He spends himself in a total agony and rips off the mask. The gesture leaves his arms stretched strengthlessly.
2003 L. J. Nelson Boy in Box xii. 131 Birds whistled strengthlessly, weakened as well..by the sultriness.
ˈstrengthlessness n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > bodily constitution > bodily weakness > [noun]
wokenessc1000
unstrengthc1175
frailnessa1300
weaknessa1300
brotelhede1340
frailtyc1384
tendernessa1387
slackness1398
unmain?a1400
unmight?a1400
feebility1413
fragility1474
infirmity1590
strengthlessness1666
feebleness1684
akrasia1806
weediness1860
1666 J. Bunyan Grace Abounding ⁋243 84 At which times I should have such a strange faintness and strengthlesness seiz upon my body, that my legs have scarce been able to carry me.
1802 T. Burnet Poems on Var. Subj. 97 The strengthlessness of Greasy Made musquet-carriage not so easy.
1879 F. W. Farrar Life & Work St. Paul II. ix. xxxii. 83 The corruption, the indignity, the strengthlessness of the mortal body.
1941 M. Samuel tr. T. Herzl in tr. A. Bein Theodore Herzl v. 145 It is in this political strengthlessness that the decline of our once powerful race displays itself.
1993 P. Anderson Harvest of Stars (1994) 429 Utter strengthlessness held her in its calm.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.c1175