Word.ws English Dictionary

windless

/ˈwɪndləs/

windless adjective: devoid of wind; calm. Also the alternative form of windlass.

Adjective

windless (comparative more windless, superlative most windless)

  1. Devoid of wind; calm.
    • Ye kings of suns and stars, Dæmons and Gods, / Ætherial Dominations, who possess / Elysian, windless, fortunate abodes / Beyond Heaven’s constellated wilderness: […]1818–1819 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Prometheus Unbound”, in Prometheus Unbound […], London: C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier […], published 1820, →OCLC, Act IV, (please specify the scene...
    • “[…] It’s for life, Miss Archer, it’s for life,” Lord Warburton repeated in the kindest, tenderest, pleasantest voice Isabel had ever heard, and looking at her with eyes charged with the light of a passion that had sifted itself clear of the baser parts of emotion—the heat, the violence, the...1908, Henry James, chapter XII, in The Portrait of a Lady (The Novels and Tales of Henry James; III), New York edition, volume I, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, pages 147–148...
  2. Out of breath.
    • [B]eing almost windles, by running after ſenſuall pleaſures too feircely, they [the gentry] are glad (for keeping them-ſelves in breath ſo long as they can) to fal to Ferret-hunting, yͭ is to say, to take vp commodities.1609, Thomas Dekker, “Lanthorne and Candle-light. Or, The Bell-man’s Second Nights-walke. […] The Second Edition, […]: Of Ferreting. The Manner of Vndooing Gentlemen by Taking vp of Commodities.”, in...
    • Then came others one after another, windless with running, crying out and saying, that all was gone: and that every where the souldiers goods were rifled, ransacked and carried clean away.1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “[Book VIII]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC, page 253

Also used as

windless is also the alternative form of windlass.

Forms of windless

Adjective
comparativemore windless
superlativemost windless
Noun
pluralwindlesses

Origin of windless

From Middle English wyndles, equivalent to wind + -less. Cognate with Old Norse vindlauss (“windless”).

Questions about windless

What does windless mean?
Windless means devoid of wind; calm.
What part of speech is windless?
Windless is an adjective.
How do you pronounce windless?
Windless is pronounced /ˈwɪndləs/.

Words near windless in the dictionary

  1. windlassing
  2. windle
  3. windled
  4. windles
  5. Windlesham
  6. windless
  7. windlesses
  8. windlessly
  9. windlessness
  10. windlestrae
  11. windlestraes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: windless (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: “windless.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/windless. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.