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wifeless. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
wifeless, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
wifeless in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
wifeless you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English wyfles, wifles, possibly from Old English wīflēas (“wifeless”), equivalent to wife + -less.
Adjective
wifeless (not comparable)
- Having no wife; unmarried or celibate.
1899, H G Wells, chapter I, in The Sleeper Awakes: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?
- Without a wife present.
1962, Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire: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.
Translations
having no wife; unmarried