Word Study
spineless
CIDE DICTIONARY
spineless, a.
- Having no spine, or vertebral column. [1913 Webster]
- Having no thorns or barbs. [PJC]
- lacking in strength of character; cowardly, in a physical or moral sense. [PJC]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
spineless, adj.
1 a having no spine; invertebrate. b (of a fish) having no fin-spines.
2 (of a person) lacking energy or resolution; weak and purposeless.
1 a having no spine; invertebrate. b (of a fish) having no fin-spines.
2 (of a person) lacking energy or resolution; weak and purposeless.
Derivative
spinelessly adv. spinelessness n.
THESAURUS
spineless
abulic, adrift, afloat, afraid, alternating, amorphous, anemic, asthenic, bloodless, capricious, changeable, changeful, chicken, cowardly, craven, dastardly, debilitated, desultory, deviable, dizzy, drooping, droopy, dull, eccentric, effete, emasculate, erratic, etiolated, faint, fainthearted, faintish, fast and loose, fearful, feeble, feebleminded, fickle, fitful, flabby, flaccid, flickering, flighty, flitting, floppy, fluctuating, forceless, frail, freakish, giddy, gone, gutless, imbecile, impetuous, impotent, impulsive, inadequate, inconsistent, inconstant, indecisive, ineffective, ineffectual, infirm, invertebrate, irregular, irresolute, irresponsible, languid, languorous, lily-livered, limber, limp, listless, lustless, marrowless, mazy, mercurial, moody, nerveless, pithless, pliable, pooped, powerless, pusillanimous, rambling, restless, roving, rubbery, sapless, scatterbrained, shapeless, shifting, shifty, shuffling, sinewless, slack, soft, spasmodic, spiritless, squeamish, strengthless, timid, timorous, unaccountable, uncertain, uncontrolled, undependable, undisciplined, unfixed, unhardened, unnerved, unpredictable, unreliable, unrestrained, unsettled, unstable, unstable as water, unstaid, unsteadfast, unsteady, unstrung, vacillating, vagrant, variable, vicissitudinary, vicissitudinous, volatile, wandering, wanton, wavering, wavery, wavy, wayward, weak, weak-kneed, weak-minded, weak-willed, weakly, whimsical, white-livered, wishy-washy, yellowFor further exploring for "spineless" in Webster Dictionary Online