headless

[hed-lis]

adjective

1. without a head.

2. having the head cut off; beheaded.

3. having no leader or chief; leaderless.

4. foolish; stupid.

   a headless argument.

ˈheadless

/ ˈhɛdlɪs /

adjective

1. without a head

2. without a leader

3. foolish or stupid

4. prosody another word for catalectic

Other Word Forms

• headlessness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of headless¹

before 1000; Middle English he ( ve ) dles, Old English hēafodlēas. See head, -less

Example Sentences

Then the headless, gutted herring were shoveled into the ship’s hold and packed between layers of salt, to preserve them.

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Especially when there are so many shipwrecks, headless horsemen, gloomy talking birds, and other equally fascinating topics to write poems about?

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Later on, the contestants had to put their doubts and suspicions aside for the day's challenge - in a creepy room full of headless dummies, which needed their Celebrity Traitor heads reattached.

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“I’ve been doing this home so long, maybe I’m losing track,” he says, casting a critical eye at the headless horseman rearing above him.

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The centrepiece of the show is "Unmanned Drone" – a completely reconstructed sculpture of Stonewall Jackson by artist Kara Walker, who transformed the horse and its rider heading into battle into a headless, zombie-like creature.

Read more on BBC