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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

handkerchiefless en · ADJ

Etymology

From handkerchief + -less.

Meanings

  1. (not-comparable) Without a handkerchief or handkerchieves.
    • The younger children were mere pocket-handkerchiefless brats, whose mission on earth seemed to be to get in the way and have their ears boxed... 1862, Albany de Grenier Fonblanque, A tangled skein:
    • I saw a million handkerchiefless children. I saw hundreds of villages in which the community handkerchief, modern sanitation, was absolutely unknown. 1916, Foreign Christian Missionary Society, The Missionary intelligencer:
    • ...she was brought up in California, and only came to England when her character was formed ; but I never expected to have a handkerchiefless friend. 1922, Eliakim Littell, Robert S Littell, The Living Age:
    • A sudden sneeze may soil the hands, especially of a handkerchiefless patient, two minutes after they are washed... 1924, John Augustus Lapp, editor, The Nation's Health: