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oarless

oarless

5.1
Having no oars to row a boat
  • adjective
  • /ˈɔːrləs/
translation icon : sin remos
  • The canoe drifted aimlessly in the pond, oarless and without direction.

Examples

  • In the stormy sea, the small boat was left oarless, swaying dangerously as the waves crashed against it.

  • After the storm, the fishermen found their rowboat oarless and stranded on the shore.

  • Dean had never had adequate words to describe the sensation, but a similarly enhanced colleague had summed it up the best when she'd compared it to having whitewater rapids raging through her head from ear to ear while she bobbed on the surface in an oarless rubber raft.

    Fiction book (1999)

Antonyms

4.6

Having long poles with flat ends that people use to move a boat by hand

How Oared

oared
4.6
oarless
5.1

Surface Forms

oarless positive

Morphology

oarless = oar (transparent) = oar + less

Direct and literal combination of 'oar' + '-less' meaning 'without oars', which a B1 learner can derive.

Etymology

Oarless comes from oar (the paddle used to row a boat) and the ending -less meaning 'without'. So it literally means 'without oars', like a boat that drifts slowly on the water.