witless

comparative more witless · superlative most witless

1. Lacking wit or understanding; foolish.

   To be his whore, is witles; Out upon't;

   1613–1614 (date written), John Fletcher, William Shak[e]speare, The Two Noble Kinsmen: […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Waterson; […], published 1634, →OCLC, Act II, scene iii, page 31

   1 more example

   Then will we march to all thoſe Indian Mines, My witleſſe brother to the Chriſtians loſt: And ranſome them with fame and vſurie.

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene v

2. Indiscreet; not using clear and sound judgment.
3. Mindless, lacking conscious thought or the capacity for it.

   Rage warps my clearest cry To witless agony.

   1941, Theodore Roethke, “Open House”, in Open House, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, London: Faber and Faber […], 1968, →OCLC, page 3