Meanings
adjectivebotleas (not comparable)
- not comparableAnglo-Saxon EnglandlawToo grievous to be atoned for by the payment of a bōt or bōte; irredeemable, unpardonable.
Persons guilty of the botleas crimes had no right to any particular punishment. Thus the convicted could not “complain if a foot was taken instead of his eyes, or if he was hanged instead of beheaded”.
1991, Carla Ann Hage Johnson, “Entitled to Clemency: Mercy in the Criminal Law”, in Law and Philosophy, X, № 1 (February 1991), page 112
Origin
- Old Englishbōtlēas“unpardonable”
- Englishbotleas
Learned borrowing from Old English bōtlēas (“unpardonable”). Doublet of bootless.
More words from Old English
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
botleas. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/botleas
MLA
“botleas.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/botleas. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “botleas,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/botleas.
Source: botleas on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.