Toothless

//ˈtuθləs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having no teeth.

    "a toothless old man"

  2. 2
    Weak; having no ability to enforce something. figuratively

    "The treaty was toothless because of the lack of participation from the undersigned."

Adjective
  1. 1
    lacking necessary force for effectiveness wordnet
  2. 2
    lacking teeth wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
edentulousanemicbreakablebroken-downdamageddebilitated

Example

More examples

"I'm not a toothless barking dog."

Etymology

From Middle English tothles, from Old English tōþlēas, from Proto-Germanic *tanþlausaz (“toothless”), equivalent to tooth + -less. Cognate with Dutch tandeloos (“toothless”), German Low German tannlos (“toothless”), German zahnlos (“toothless”), Danish tandløs (“toothless”), Swedish tandlös (“toothless”), Icelandic tannlaus (“toothless”).

Related phrases

toothless whalevoice of toothless one

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