toothless
/ˈtuːθləs
/adjective
1Having no teeth, typically through old age: a toothless old man...
- The reason to do it now is preventive to try and avoid a toothless old age for her.
- His eternally friendly toothless grin is accentuated by wire-framed goggles, and his short-cropped head is uncovered.
- And his cauliflower ears, toothless grin and boneless nose are testimony to his unrelenting quest for simulated perfection.
1.1Lacking genuine force or effectiveness: laws that are well intentioned but toothless...
- Its armed forces are toothless, and its rhetoric is tired, repeated out of habit rather than conviction.
- Resultantly, the CBI has come out as merely a toothless, diseased paper tiger whose roar is more effective than its maul.
- The inquiry is effectively powerless, and it is toothless.
Derivatives
toothlessly
- When I am done, she breaks into a smile so toothlessly wide, so charmingly affectionate, that I feel I might easily dissolve into it.
- Chalmers treasured his 25 cents a week, and it was amusing to watch him hobble about on his remaining leg, emptying rubbish baskets and grinning toothlessly.
- He giggled and smiled toothlessly, raising his chubby arms and squealing for her to pick him up… so she did, without a moment's hesitation.
toothlessness
- But the toothlessness of their side, a perennial problem, made for morsels that, ultimately, were easily digested by their rivals.
- Flashbacks to Fisher's foster home carry the weight of importance here, but even they have the toothlessness of high-minded intentions.
- It broke because of my refusal to confront the consequences - pain, decay, toothlessness - of not going to the dentist.