defenceless

UK/dɪˈfɛnsləs/

adjectiveB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,271 of 15,258leans spoken

Defenceless means having no way to protect yourself. A defenceless animal, left defenceless, defenceless against it.

It is used to make a moral point, since calling a victim defenceless says the attack was contemptible as well as wrong. Americans spell it defenseless, matching their spelling of defense.

Definitions of defenceless

1adjectivedefencelessHaving no way to protect yourself.B2+
“The fox got into the henhouse and attacked the defenceless chickens.”

defenceless is a state.

Also accepted in games: defenseless

Where it comes from

Latin
dēfēnsa — protection
Old French
defens
Middle English
defens
English
defence
English, today
defenceless

From defence + -less. defence comes from Middle English defens, defense, from Old French defens, defense, from Latin dēfēnsa (“protection”). bewering.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

defenceless in the wild

Public opinion of Carmagnola quickly soured again, however, as he released all 8,000 prisoners captured and decided not to advance on the defenceless Cremona.
Battle of Maclodio
Meanwhile they were blamed by some for having fled, and it was said that they lived in comfort, having left their flocks defenceless.
Mauger of Worcester
However, Hitchens does not make a universal anti-war case because he believes that this position often leaves countries unprotected and defenceless in times of war.
The Phoney Victory

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the defens family

fence defence

defenceless — used about once every 6,066 pages · #10,271 · point at the bar for the others

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