Definitions

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

  • adjective rare Having no ox or oxen.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From ox +‎ -less.

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Examples

  • On those "oxless" shores, where, as Byron says, "beef was rare," though

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 334, August 1843 Various

  • Once a "harness-cask," hostile to every sense, came trundled by waves eager to expel it from the vicinity of these oxless but scented isles.

    Confessions of a Beachcomber 1887

  • “harness-cask,” hostile to every sense, came trundled by waves eager to expel it from the vicinity of these oxless but scented isles.

    The Confessions of a Beachcomber 2003

  • He could not resist the singularly appropriate quotation — ‘But beef is rare within these oxless isles; Goats’ flesh there is, no doubt, and kid, and mutton, And when a holiday upon them smiles, A joint upon their barbarous spits they put on.’

    Sketches by Boz 2007

  • The factory’s rear door slid open, and an oxless wagon rolled into the alley.

    DEBTOR'S PLANET W.R. THOMPSON 2000

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