beardless

From Middle English bērdlēs, from Old English beardlēas (“beardless”), from Proto-West Germanic *bardalaus (“beardless”), equivalent to beard +‎ -less. Cognate with Scots berdles (“beardless”), Saterland Frisian boartloos (“beardless”), West Frisian burdleas (“beardless”), Dutch baardeloos (“beardless”), German Low German baartlos (“beardless”), German bartlos (“beardless”).

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beardless (comparative more beardless, superlative most beardless)

1. Lacking a beard.
   • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page iii:

     A eunuch is a negative creature. A beardless Moslem is contemptuously designated as manless.

   • 1987 February 1, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 28, page 13:

     Distinctly slender (willowy), quietly fem/androgynous, beardless chap who can wear clothes and speak well is what I'm hoping to find.

2. (by extension, of a male) Not having reached puberty or manhood; youthful.
   • 1596, Shakespeare, King John, Act 4, Scene 1:

     shall a beardless boy,
     Cocker’d silken wanton, brave our fields,
     And flesh his spirit in a warlike soil,
     Mocking the air with colours idly spread,
     And find no check?

3. Lacking an awn.

   beardless wheat

4. (ornithology) Lacking a beard (a defined patch of feathers below the beak).

• beardlessness

• beard
• bearded
• beardedness
• debeard
• unbeard

• breadless, dressable