knightless

knightless

English

Etymology

From knight +‎ -less.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈnʌɪtləs/
• Homophone: nightless

Adjective

knightless (comparative more knightless, superlative most knightless)

1. (rare, obsolete) Unbecoming of a knight; unchivalrous. [16th–18th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:

     Whereof thou […] all knights hast shamed with this knightlesse part.

2. (not comparable) Without a knight.
   • 1890, Ouida, Othmar. Friendship. And other stories (page 545)

     This night, when the Lady Joan sternly bade her knight attend the knightless damsels to their home, Ioris obeyed.

   • 2005, Eric Schiller, The Rubinstein Attack!: A Chess Opening Strategy for White, page 28:

     Janowski vs. Jaffe Match, New York, 1917 / Classical Tartakower / Knightless middlegame, queenside strategy

   • 2010, Dennis W. Shepherd, The Papaw Diary (page 300)

     The knightless armor moved toward Rocky. When it was just a few feet away, the visor of the helmet opened and the loudest and scariest shriek anyone could every^[sic] imagine came out of the helmet.

   • 2012, Jonathan H. Grossman, Charles Dickens's Networks: Public Transport and the Novel (page 220)

     shining the heroics of a latterday Don Quixote upon a knightless age