Meanings
- not comparablerareRare form of scarfless.
Blue clouds slide west; a raw wind scrapes the scarveless necks of old men clenching black coats about their knees.
1974, Patricia Sweeney, “Untitled”, in America Sings, Los Angeles, Calif.: National Poetry Press, →OCLC, page 542 more examples
The scene of his exploits was a minute Liverpool music-hall; a place in which the “collars” needed no pass-out checks, but were trusted on their gentility and conspicuousness, while the scarved and scarveless, being in the vast majority, and indistinguishable in type, were scrupulously handed well-worn bits of pasteboard on their frequent expeditions in search of better liquor at cheaper prices.
1929, J[ohn] B[ennion] Booth, “The Old Halls”, in London Town, London: T[homas] Werner Laurie […], →OCLC, page 95Always a Rabbit on cue in that Hat: / Black, brown, white, mixed colors – eveready / For centuries. Then, the command was lost, / The baton broken, and deeper reachings / Found nothing there. Scarves stopped all together. / Long it made us glad with easy magic. / A global museum wonder piece, now. / Alas, for many a quite rabbitless, / Scarveless remnant of past conjurations.
2020 August 29, Michael D. O’Kelly, “My Last Magic Hat”, in POP: Poetries on Purpose – Prescience of Passage, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, “Some Tales Along the Trail” section
Origin
From the inflected stem of scarf (plural scarves) + -less. Compare leaveless.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
scarveless. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scarveless
“scarveless.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scarveless. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “scarveless,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scarveless.
Source: scarveless on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.