houseless

[ hous-lis ]

adjective

1. without a house or houses:

   My friend lived on the other side of the houseless plot of land.

2. being unhoused or lacking permanent housing; homeless:

   The church is holding a winter survival equipment drive to provide houseless folks with heavy duty winter coats, blankets, and sleeping bags.

Sensitive Note

See homeless ( def ).

Other Words From

• house·less·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of houseless¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; house + -less ( def )

Example Sentences

In August, activists protested outside the mayor’s Mission Hills home holding signs that, according to the Union-Tribune, urged the mayor to “end police terror on the houseless” and “stop the sweeps.”

From Voice of San Diego

In the same year, the city’s new Citizen Task Force on Homelessness implemented a program that sends mental health professionals to aid during non-emergency calls, connecting houseless individuals to city services and housing opportunities.

From Voice of San Diego

Like that unknown mother, she too had become a houseless wanderer, seeking for a home and shelter from a hard unfeeling world.

From Project Gutenberg

Let him but acknowledge you, Norman, and he may turn me out upon the world houseless and a beggar, and I will bless him for it!

From Project Gutenberg

But to tamper with their dialect, or to take it from them, would be to leave them houseless and exposed in their daily business.

From Project Gutenberg

Yet one can hardly associate sparrows with marshes, for they seem out of place in houseless, treeless, half-submerged stretches.

From Project Gutenberg

He has ruined my poor old friend; he will soon leave him houseless, and he threatens to leave him almost friendless too.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• homeless
• unhoused
• unsheltered