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What is "spineless"

Crossword clues for spineless

spineless
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
spineless
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ spineless creatures such as jellyfish
▪ Don't be spineless -- you have to stand up to people like that.
▪ He's nothing but a spineless coward.
▪ The President has been accused of being spineless in the face of naked aggression.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Equally worrisome, many environmentalists brand the Fish and Wildlife Service as a spineless weathervane.
▪ No more will I look down my nose at whining, spineless malcontents.
▪ Nor would Edwin concede more than a spineless encouragement that she be hopeful and humble in their work together.
▪ The hand was still doughy when Miguel shook it, weak and spineless.
▪ We did not see him as the spineless vicar that Fielding turned him into in Shamela.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Spineless

Spineless \Spine"less\, a.

  1. Having no spine, or vertebral column.

  2. Having no thorns or barbs.

  3. lacking in strength of character; cowardly, in a physical or moral sense.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
spineless

1827 of animals (1805 of plants), from spine + -less. Meaning "lacking moral force" is from 1885. Related: Spinelessly; spinelessness.

Wiktionary
spineless

a. 1 Having no spine. 2 cowardly; uncourageous.

WordNet
spineless

  1. adj. weak in willpower [syn: namby-pamby, wishy-washy]

  2. lacking courage or vitality; "he was a yellow gutless worm"; "a spineless craven fellow" [syn: gutless] [ant: gutsy]

Usage examples of "spineless".

The Antler Kindred were weak, spineless creatures, cowardly and frail, and everyone knew it.

Those spineless types who talk about abolishing the apostrophe are missing the point, and the pun is very much intended.

They have seduced spineless American and British scholars into giving the benediction of serious study to such thin beer as the films of Capra, Hawks, and Jerry Lewis.

What sort of a miserable, spineless, cowardly, caddish travesty of a man do you take me for, to think I would let you go alone?

The campaigns were monotonously one-sided, from which the Detinans inferred that blonds were and always would be a pack of spineless cowards.

Since organizations appear to be growing larger and more powerful all the time, the future, according to this view, threatens to turn us all into that most contemptible of creatures, spineless and faceless, the organization man.

When they went back to their friends, the committee members would have Ezr Vinh to point at as the spineless fellow who was ramrodding the Emergent demands—and their own unpopular position would be a little easier.