Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Without a chief or leader.

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

  • adjective Without a chief or leader.

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

  • adjective Without a chief; leaderless.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

chief +‎ -less

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Examples

  • The same spirit that caused them to rebel against me, would impel them to desert each other; and the most dreadful sufferings would be the consequence of their journey in their present unordered and chiefless array.

    The Last Man 2003

  • Mossy cliffs -- flowing cascades -- "chiefless castles breaking stern farewells" -- all these were met, and met again, as through Brixen, they reached the village of Mülks.

    A Love Story A Bushman

  • No great clan held rule there; it was filled and disputed by small septs, and broken remnants, and what they call "chiefless folk," driven into the wild country about the springs of Forth and Teith by the advance of the Campbells.

    Kidnapped: The Adventures of David Balfour 1886

  • No great clan held rule there; it was filled and disputed by small septs, and broken remnants, and what they call "chiefless folk," driven into the wild country about the springs of Forth and Teith by the advance of the Campbells.

    Kidnapped Robert Louis Stevenson 1872

  • At present without employment worthy his spirit of enterprise and intrigue, the disordered and chiefless state of Rome had attracted him thither.

    Rienzi, Last of the Roman Tribunes Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • Adrian's declared predeliction to the republican form of government, the latter party had nearly died away, chiefless, guideless; but, when Lord Raymond came forward as its leader, it revived with redoubled force.

    I.4 1826

  • The same spirit that caused them to rebel against me, would impel them to desert each other; and the most dreadful sufferings would be the consequence of their journey in their present unordered and chiefless array.

    III.6 1826

  • After Adrian's declared predeliction to the republican form of government, the latter party had nearly died away, chiefless, guideless; but, when Lord Raymond came forward as its leader, it revived with redoubled force.

    The Last Man 1826

  • The same spirit that caused them to rebel against me, would impel them to desert each other; and the most dreadful sufferings would be the consequence of their journey in their present unordered and chiefless array.

    The Last Man 1826

  • The same spirit that caused them to rebel against me, would impel them to desert each other; and the most dreadful sufferings would be the consequence of their journey in their present unordered and chiefless array.

    The Last Man Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 1824

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