Meanings
comparative more knightless · superlative most knightless
- obsoleterareUnbecoming of a knight; unchivalrous.First known use 16th–18th c.
Whereof thou […] all knights hast shamed with this knightlesse part.
1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC - not comparableWithout a knight.
shining the heroics of a latterday Don Quixote upon a knightless age
2012, Jonathan H. Grossman, Charles Dickens's Networks: Public Transport and the Novel, page 2203 more examples
This night, when the Lady Joan sternly bade her knight attend the knightless damsels to their home, Ioris obeyed.
1890, Ouida, Othmar. Friendship. And other stories, page 545Janowski vs. Jaffe Match, New York, 1917 / Classical Tartakower / Knightless middlegame, queenside strategy
2005, Eric Schiller, The Rubinstein Attack!: A Chess Opening Strategy for White, page 28The knightless armor moved toward Rocky. When it was just a few feet away, the visor of the helmet opened and the loudest and scariest shriek anyone could every^([sic]) imagine came out of the helmet.
2010, Dennis W. Shepherd, The Papaw Diary, page 300
Origin
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Cite this entry
knightless. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/knightless
“knightless.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/knightless. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “knightless,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/knightless.
Source: knightless on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.