Dictionary

wifeless en · ADJ

Etymology

From Middle English wyfles, wifles, possibly from Old English wīflēas (“wifeless”), equivalent to wife + -less.

Meanings

1. (not-comparable) Having no wife; unmarried or celibate.
   • I am a lone wolf, a solitary man, wandering through a world in which I have no part. I am wifeless—childless—who is it speaks of the childless as the dead twigs on the tree of life? 1899 January 7 – May 5, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter I, in When the Sleeper Wakes, London; New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, published 1899, →OCLC:
2. (not-comparable) Without a wife present.
   • I at once telephoned. The Shades were out, said the cheeky ancillula, an obnoxious little fan who came to cook for them on Sundays and no doubt dreamt of getting the old poet to cuddle her some wifeless day. 1962, Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire:

Forms

Deriveds

wifelessness

Relateds

wivesless

Translations (4)

pl bezżenny (having no wife; unmarried) · grc ἀγύναιος (having no wife; unmarried) · got 𐌿𐌽𐌵𐌴𐌽𐌹𐌸𐍃 (having no wife; unmarried) · enm wyfles (having no wife; unmarried)