Shunless

//ˈʃʌnləs// adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    That cannot be shunned; not to be avoided; inevitable, unavoidable. literary

    "Th' immortal Parcæ, fatal sisters three, / Of mortal men, do sing the shunless fate: / What once Was, what Is now, and what Shall Be, / Their life, their death, their fortune, and their state."

Example

More examples

"Th' immortal Parcæ, fatal sisters three, / Of mortal men, do sing the shunless fate: / What once Was, what Is now, and what Shall Be, / Their life, their death, their fortune, and their state."

Etymology

From shun + -less (suffix meaning ‘lacking, without’), probably popularized by the English playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616) by its use in his play Coriolanus (c. 1608–1609): see the quotation.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.