Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Lacking water; dry.
  • adjective Not requiring water, as a cooling system.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Lacking water; unsupplied or un-moistened with water; of a fish, out of water.

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

  • adjective Destitute of water; dry.

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

  • adjective Dry, arid, lacking water.
  • adjective Not requiring water.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective lacking sufficient water or rainfall

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

water +‎ -less

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Examples

  • **I may have incorporated some words/terms/concepts that amuse me (Mongol, ghee, Gobi/gobi (which amuses me because it's both the Mongol word for “waterless place” and the Hindi word for "cauliflower"), globetrotting, jalopy, and the names Pierce, Otto and Ratzinger).

    The Happy List: Words, + Brooklyn Arden Contest! Cheryl 2005

  • And the word waterless is a main entry in Cobuild, explained in twenty words, whereas in CED it is naught but a so-called "undefined runon" — merely mentioned, but not explained explicitly, as a sub-entry at water.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XV No 2 1984

  • Glenda Larke is a skilful worldbuilder and in this new series she creates a remarkable desert land where water is treasured and the waterless are the outcasts of society.

    Another review Glenda Larke 2009

  • Not so good for the enveloping showers some of us prefer i.e. water comes straight down, rather than spreading into a cone, which means sides of shoulders, arms, etc. are waterless, which is just not OK.

    Archive 2009-01-01 Becca 2009

  • Not so good for the enveloping showers some of us prefer i.e. water comes straight down, rather than spreading into a cone, which means sides of shoulders, arms, etc. are waterless, which is just not OK.

    Renovation Aftermath Becca 2009

  • Glenda Larke is a skilful worldbuilder and in this new series she creates a remarkable desert land where water is treasured and the waterless are the outcasts of society.

    Archive 2009-09-01 Glenda Larke 2009

  • They also have something called waterless urinals in that hotel.

    CNN Transcript May 2, 2007 2007

  • So it wants to set up a pilot program in which at least some fund-raisers will be asked to volunteer to use a new "waterless" cleaning product.

    Towns May Shut Off Tap 2007

  • Ironically, this 'waterless' plain has 50-200 feet of marine sediments.

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] 2010

  • Other touches at the office, such as waterless urinals and low-flow plumbing fixtures, are sometimes overlooked during energy-saving projects.

    Fore, right! < 2010

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