Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Without a crest, in any sense of that word; not dignified with coat-armor; not of an eminent family; of low birth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Without a crest or escutcheon; of low birth.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having no crest
  • adjective Having no coat of arms

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

crest +‎ -less

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Examples

  • Upon his head he placed his bull's-hide helmet, coneless, crestless, which is called cataityx, [348] and protects the heads of blooming youths.

    The Iliad of Homer (1873) 750? BC-650? BC Homer 1840

  • "All furless, crestless faces look the same," said Varian with a laugh.

    Cattle Town 2010

  • Gael fight with sword and lance, as becomes belted knights, or with sandbags, like the crestless churls of England, or butcher each other with knives and skenes, in their own barbarous fashion?

    The Fair Maid of Perth 2008

  • "All furless, crestless faces look the same, " said Varian with a laugh.

    Dinosaur Planet McCaffrey, Anne 1978

  • He pulled off his tight-fitting, crestless helm, wiped his arm across his sweating face.

    Web Of The Witch World Norton, Andre 1964

  • Aroused, there was no rush and surge of emotion -- it welled, rose deeply; thickly, without ripple; crestless, flinging no intoxicating spume.

    Once Aboard the Lugger 1925

  • It is crestless; the spot where the crest ought to be is chestnut red.

    Birds of the Indian Hills Douglas Dewar 1916

  • Great shiny blue, crestless jays flitted over the scrub; shy black and white and chestnut chewinks flirted into sight and out again among the heaps of dead brush; red-bellied woodpeckers, sticking to the tree trunks, turned their heads calmly; gray lizards, big, ugly red-headed lizards, swift slender lizards with blue tails raced across the dry leaves or up tree trunks, making even more fuss and clatter than the noisy cinnamon-tinted thrashers in the underbrush.

    The Firing Line 1899

  • All day long brilliant butterflies hover on great curved wings over the jungle edge; all day long the cock-quail whistles from wall and hedge, and the crestless jays, sapphire winged, flit across the dunes.

    The Firing Line 1899

  • The water seemed as if oil, sweeping in long, crestless, gently undulating waves, while every colour in the brilliant sunset sky was reflected with kaleidoscopic intermingling in the gliding mirror.

    Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago 1887

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