Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not having a master; uncontrolled or unprotected by a master.
  • Free from mastery or ownership; liberated from or not subject to a master; having unrestrained liberty.
  • That cannot be mastered; ungovernable; beyond control.

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

  • adjective Destitute of a master or owner; ungoverned or ungovernable.

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

  • adjective Lacking or deprived of a master.

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

  • adjective having no lord or master

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

master +‎ -less

Support

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Examples

  • The screenplay is more of an update on the classic round-up movie and the idea of masterless warriors.

    Conversations with GoD: ‘The Forbidden Kingdom’ Screenwriter John Fusco 2008

  • Fusco, whose screenplays include the The Young Guns movies, Hidalgo, and the recent Jackie Chan/Jet Li flick The Forbidden Kingdom, explained that his Seven screenplay is more of a “contemporary exploration of the classic round-up movie and the idea of masterless warriors.”

    No Samurai in Weinstein’s ‘Seven Samurai’ Redo 2008

  • Those who had no place in the paternal hierarchy of society -- the "masterless" men -- came here, bringing with them the alleged baggage of crime and sedition.

    Wrong Side of the River: London's disreputable South Bank in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Jessica A. Browner Jessica A. Browner 1994

  • Every viewer, or at least more viewer, would act as "masterless" men and women, making their viewing choices by their own lights.

    Grant McCracken Grant McCracken 2010

  • "masterless" architecture • Distributed, redundant storage • Sync without Internet • Work disconnected

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2009

  • On the 5th April James left Edinburgh for London, where every precaution was taken to prevent disturbance by ridding the streets of rogues, vagabonds and "masterless" men. (

    London and the Kingdom - Volume II

  • In the fens were wild men, masterless men, fled slaves, and outlaws, who were hunted in sport as the wolves were hunted.

    Chapter 17 2010

  • The mayor of London and its aldermen complain incessantly that because they have no authority there, Southwark, the Clink, and Paris Gardens—to name the most colorful neighborhoods—are riotous places given over to masterless men, thieves, whoremongers, and the like.

    Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer Lucy Weston 2011

  • The mayor of London and its aldermen complain incessantly that because they have no authority there, Southwark, the Clink, and Paris Gardens—to name the most colorful neighborhoods—are riotous places given over to masterless men, thieves, whoremongers, and the like.

    Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer Lucy Weston 2011

  • Unlike the above policies of segregation that brazenly named the objects of their scorn - − "masterless men," "cripples," "negroes," and "Bolshevik bums" − - today's vagrancy laws are dressed up in post-civil rights legalese.

    Paul Boden: The Quality of Whose Life? Part 3 Paul Boden 2010

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