Waterless

//ˈwɔːtə(ɹ)ləs// adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Dry, arid, lacking water. not-comparable

    "The waterless desert can kill in many ways but dehydration is often fastest."

  2. 2
    Not requiring water. not-comparable

    "How does a waterless urinal have a drain trap?"

Adjective
  1. 1
    lacking sufficient water or rainfall wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
dryanhydrousaridaridathirstbone-dry

Antonyms

All antonyms
moist

Example

More examples

"The waterless desert can kill in many ways but dehydration is often fastest."

Etymology

From Middle English waterles, waterlees, from Old English wæterlēas (“waterless”), from Proto-Germanic *watōrlausaz, equivalent to water + -less. Cognate with Saterland Frisian woaterloos (“waterless”), West Frisian wetterleas (“waterless”), Dutch waterloos (“waterless”), German wasserlos (“waterless”), Swedish vattenlös (“waterless”), Icelandic vatnslaus (“waterless”).

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