Word.ws English Dictionary

handless

/ˈhændləs/

handless adjective: without any hands.

Adjective (1)

handless (comparative more handless, superlative most handless)

  1. Without any hands.
    • Together with his mangled Myrmidons, That noseless, handless, hack'd and chipp'd, come to himc. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  2. (obsolete) Not handy; awkward.
    • We’ll take a dram for luck, and as soon as this handless man of mine has the collops ready, we’ll dine and take a hand at the cartes as gentlemen should.1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC
    • This, however, was a thing that, left to himself, would have simply rendered Bill Lampiere a most handless workman at everything he attempted.1891, Dugald Ferguson, Vicissitudes of Bush Life in Australia and New Zealand, page 55

Adjective (2)

handless (not comparable)

  1. Without a handle.
    • She gave him a few coppers from the handless jug.1812, John Galt, Voyages and travels in the years 1809, 1810, and 1811, page 106
    • One battered, spoutless, handless, japanned-in jug, that did not contain water, for it leaked.1836, The Metropolitan, Volume 15, page 148

handless meaning in Urdu and Kannada

handless in Urdu

بےڈھب, بےہاتھ

handless in Kannada

ಅಕರ

Examples of handless in a sentence

  • Chinese soup is sipped in a handless cup (Chinese soup bowl) with its own soupspoon.2003, Manners... More than Etiquette, page 91:
  • The leftover dough from the loaves would be rolled out with a handless, wooden, rolling pin.2006, Elsieferne V. Stout, Dundy County Babe, page 44:

Forms of handless

comparativemore handless
superlativemost handless

Origin of handless

From Middle English handles, from Old English *handlēas, from Proto-Germanic *handulausaz (“handless”), equivalent to hand + -less. Cognate with West Frisian hânleas (“handless”), German handlos (“handless”), Icelandic handlauss (“handless”).

From handleless, by haplology, under the influence of etymology 1 above.

Words formed from handless

Questions about handless

What does handless mean?
Handless means without any hands.
What is handless in Urdu?
Handless in Urdu is بےڈھب, بےہاتھ. See Handless meaning in Urdu.
How do you use handless in a sentence?
Chinese soup is sipped in a handless cup (Chinese soup bowl) with its own soupspoon.
What part of speech is handless?
Handless is an adjective.
How do you pronounce handless?
Handless is pronounced /ˈhændləs/.

Words near handless in the dictionary

  1. handles up
  2. handles with kid gloves
  3. handles without gloves
  4. handles without mittens
  5. handlesome
  6. handless
  7. handlessness
  8. handlest
  9. handleth
  10. handlever
  11. Handley

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: handless (page history and authors); handless (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); handless (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “handless.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/handless. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.