Meanings
- not comparableHaving no feathers.
[…] clad in a featherless hat and somber black garments, which set off the dark pallor of his forbidding face.
1929 June, Robert E. Howard, “Rattle of Bones”, in Weird Tales1 more example
He eyed me with contempt: great featherless, half winged bird as I was, incomprehensible, contemptible, but awful.
1911, D. H. Lawrence, The White Peacock, London: Heinemann, page 128Synonyms: apteric, unfeathered
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveHaving no feathers.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivehaving no feathers
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Englishfethirles
- Englishfeatherless
From Middle English fethirles, fedyrles, equivalent to feather + -less. Cognate with Dutch veerloos, German federlos, Swedish fjäderlös.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan implume
- implumehaving no feathers
Finnish sulaton
- sulatonhaving no feathers
German federlos
- federloshaving no feathers
Hungarian tollatlan, csupasz
- tollatlanhaving no feathers
- csupaszhaving no feathers
Italian implume
- implumehaving no feathers
Latin implūmis
- implūmishaving no feathers
Polish bezpióry, nieopierzony
- bezpióryhaving no feathers
- nieopierzonyhaving no feathers
Spanish implume
- implumehaving no feathers
Turkish tüysüz
- tüysüzhaving no feathers
Cite this entry
featherless. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/featherless
“featherless.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/featherless. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “featherless,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/featherless.
Source: featherless on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.