Meanings
- not comparableWithout meat.
A meatless day or a beerless or tealess day does not suggest moderation so much as immoderation.
1916, The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art2 more examples
Are we to understand from paragraph 1 (c) that [the residents of Malta] are entirely meatless? or have they cattle they can kill, and if so how many?
1942, Winston S. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, vol. 4 of The Second World War (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950), p. 300. [Memo from Prime Minister Churchill to General Ismay dated April 3, 1942]“Eating more plants and going meatless is a good way to preserve your health,” said Dr. Robert Graham, who is board certified in both internal and integrative medicine. […] Some fun meatless recipes include jackfruit sandwiches in place of pulled pork; black bean meatless balls or eggplant and shiitake “meatballs.”
2020 May 19, Lisa Drayer, “How to eat less meat and more plants”, in CNN
Synonyms & antonyms
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivelacking meat
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Old Englishmetelēas“foodless”
- Middle Englishmeteles
- Englishmeatless
From Middle English meteles, from Old English metelēas (“foodless”), equivalent to meat + -less.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian постен
- постен (posten)without meat
Estonian lihata
- lihatawithout meat
Finnish lihaton
- lihatonwithout meat
German fleischlos
- fleischloswithout meat
Hungarian hústalan
- hústalanwithout meat
Polish jarski, bezmięsny
- jarskiwithout meat
- bezmięsnywithout meat
Turkish etsiz
- etsizwithout meat
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
meatless. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/meatless
“meatless.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/meatless. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “meatless,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/meatless.
Source: meatless on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.