oarlessness

oarlessness

English

Etymology

oarless +‎ -ness

Noun

oarlessness (uncountable)

1. Absence of oars.
   • 2002, Douglas Smith, Helsinki Drift: Travel Poems (page 10)

     Only dark birds know who let it rot over itself, mirror its oarlessness and the one thin seam that suddenly like a mouth opened to allow everything oceanic in.

   • 1989, Richard P. Blackmur, ‎James T. Jones, Outsider at the Heart of Things: Essays (page 227)

     All that counts when Poe's gondolier loses his single oar is the idea of oarlessness.