Spineless

adj

adj ·2 syllables ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having no spines, prickles, or thorns. not-comparable
  2. 2
    Having no spinal column. not-comparable
  3. 3
    Cowardly, uncourageous; lacking character.

    "If this results in a society which MacIntyre has criticized as being the province of the manager, the aesthete and the analyst, types almost sinister in their philosophical lightmindedness, superficiality, programmed uninterestingness, and their depressingly spineless willingness to grant the presence of 'despicable types' for the sake of political freedom, then so be it."

Adjective
  1. 1
    lacking thorns wordnet
  2. 2
    lacking courage or vitality wordnet
  3. 3
    lacking spiny processes wordnet
  4. 4
    lacking a backbone or spinal column wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
invertebrateinvertebrate;abulicadriftafloat

Example

More examples

"Tom is a gutless, spineless, gormless, underachieving twat."

Etymology

From spine + -less.

Related phrases

spineless eelspineless sadism

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