Bootless
adj
adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Adjective
- 1 Without boots. not-comparable
- 2 Profitless; pointless; unavailing.
"I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers."
Adjective
- 1 unproductive of success wordnet
Example
More examples"It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps."
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English bootles, botelees; equivalent to boot + -less.
Etymology 2
From Middle English boteles, botles, from Old English bōtlēas; equivalent to boot (“profit; use; behoof”) + -less. Doublet of botleas.
More for "bootless"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.