lidless

L1I1D2L1E1S1S1

adjective

Without a lid.

Opposite
Scrabble 8

Meanings

adjectivelidless (not comparable)
  1. not comparableWithout a lid.

    Two or three minutes later the murdered man, the blanketed corpse, the lidless coffin, and the open grave were under no inspection but the moon’s.

    1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “Chapter 9”, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC
    4 more examples

    1797, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Ode on the Departing Year,” Epode II, in Poems, Bristol: J. Cottle & Messrs. Robinsons, 2nd edition, p. 15, […] yet, as she lies By livid fount, or roar of blazing stream, If ever to her lidless dragon eyes, O Albion! thy predestin’d ruins rise, The Fiend-hag on her perilous couch doth leap, Mutt’ring distemper’d triumph in her charmed sleep.

    You can scarce imagine how nauseatingly inhuman they looked—those pale, chinless faces and great, lidless, pinkish-grey eyes!—as they stared in their blindness and bewilderment.

    1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Chapter 6”, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC

    When I exercised the pony, old Johnny, after school hours I loved to ride through the Cook Street chaos of garbage. High and safe on the horse’s back I could look down into it and see wild rose bushes forcing their blooms up through lidless cook stoves and skunk cabbage peeping out of bottomless perambulators, beds tipped at any angle, their years of restfulness all finished and done with.

    1942, Emily Carr, “Cook Street”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC

    One foot caught on a ridge in the blacktop driveway and I stumbled. The cup of café mocha flew out of my grasp and settled lidless on the pavement.

    2007, Nicole Young, chapter 11, in Love Me If You Must (A Patricia Amble Mystery), Grand Rapids, Mich.: Fleming H. Revell, →ISBN, page 93

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectivenot having or covered with a lid or lids

Opposite

adjectivehaving no lid

Similar

adjectivealways watchful

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*ḱel-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*ḱléyti
  3. Proto-Indo-European*ḱley-
  4. Proto-Indo-European*ḱlitós
  5. Proto-Indo-European*ḱlitóm
  6. Proto-Germanic*hlidą
  7. Proto-West Germanic*hlid
  8. Old Englishhlid
  9. Middle Englishlid
  10. Englishlid
  11. Proto-Indo-European*lewh₁-
  12. Proto-Indo-European*lewHs-
  13. Proto-Germanic*leusaną
  14. Proto-Germanic*lausaz
  15. Englishlidless

From lid + -less.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

lidless. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lidless

MLA

“lidless.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lidless. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lidless,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lidless.

Source: lidless on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.