different between boneless vs coneless

English

Etymology

From Middle English bonles, banles, from Old English b?nl?as (“boneless”), from Proto-Germanic *bainalausaz, equivalent to bone +? -less. Cognate with Scots baneless (“boneless”), Dutch beenloos (“boneless; legless”), German beinlos (“legless”), Swedish benlös (“boneless”), Icelandic beinlaus (“boneless”).

Adjective

boneless (comparative more boneless, superlative most boneless)

1. Without bones, especially as pertaining to meat or poultry prepared for eating.
2. (chiefly Britain, figuratively) Lacking strength, courage, or resolve; spineless.
   • 1931, Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 13 May:

     I remember, when I was a child, being taken to the celebrated Barnum's circus, which contained an exhibition of freaks and monstrosities, but the exhibit [...] which I most desired to see was the one described as "The Boneless Wonder." My parents judged that the spectacle would be too revolting and demoralizing for my youthful eyes, and I have waited fifty years to see the boneless wonder sitting on the Treasury Bench.

   • 2006, Graham Searjeant, "Loyalty pays off for M&S shareholders", The Times of London, 11 November:

     Had the Green consortium made a straight bid, boneless fund managers would easily have outvoted private investors.

Derived terms

• bonelessness

Translations

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.

Anagrams

• noblesse

English

Etymology

cone +? -less

Adjective

coneless (not comparable)

1. Without a cone.

   a coneless loudspeaker

Anagrams

• encloses