Definitions

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

  • adjective Lacking intelligence or wit; foolish.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Destitute of wit or understanding; thoughtless; unreflecting; stupid.
  • Not knowing; unconscious.
  • Proceeding from thoughtlessness or folly; not under the guidance of judgment; foolish; indiscreet; senseless; silly.

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

  • adjective Destitute of wit or understanding; wanting thought; hence, indiscreet; not under the guidance of judgment.

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

  • adjective Destitute of wit or understanding; wanting thought; hence, indiscreet; not under the guidance of judgment.

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

  • adjective (of especially persons) lacking sense or understanding or judgment

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From wit +‎ -less.

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Examples

  • His lips trembled briefly, but otherwise, his face never let go of his expression of witless warmth.

    Hamlet II: Ophelia’s Revenge David Bergantino 2003

  • Fox "News" has long been a fomenter of violent crime, encouraging the tin-foil hat crowd to embark on mercenary missions to take out liberals and other normal, thinking people in waves of violent crimes in churches, woman's health clinics, and pretty much anywhere they find them, and this was true of the so-called witless tea party protests of Obama's tax reform plan.

    Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? 2009

  • I thought it said that Bachmann and Coulter were both called "witless."

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com The Huffington Post 2012

  • I thought it said that Bachmann and Coulter were both called "witless."

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com The Huffington Post 2012

  • Before you welcome the show in, you should be warned that our theater critic found it "witless" and "pointless."

    Critic's Corner Weekend 2009

  • What kind of witless fools trade the lives of others just to say I told you so?

    Dodd: Obama, Clinton ticket not likely 2008

  • To see someone who is massively accomplished become someone massively disabled, not in some tragic accident, but because their own body and brain turned on them scares most people witless which is about the kindest thing I can say about them.

    Am I a liar? Elizabeth McClung 2008

  • Given the natural course of events, most Americans will soon be scared ... 'witless' ... that this woman might eventually have her hand on the button.

    Giles Slade: Sarah Palin, Straw Man 2008

  • GREENFIELD: Yes, I think that kind of witless conversation that political -- some political folks indulge in every time the president speaks, what does he have to do?

    CNN Transcript Sep 20, 2001 2001

  • He pours a kind of witless corruption at the viewer and I can't think of another actor who could have done it with such a personal-seeming flavour.

    Evening Standard - Home 2010

Comments

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  • Thanks you for having been what parents should be -

    benigner than their witless brood deserves.

    - Peter Reading, Post-Dated, from Nothing for Anyone, 1977

    June 26, 2008

  • Heehee.

    June 26, 2008