Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having no sleeves; without sleeves: noting a garment.
  • Imperfect; inadequate; fruitless; unprofitable; bootless.

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

  • adjective Having no sleeves.
  • adjective obsolete Wanting a cover, pretext, or palliation; unreasonable; profitless; bootless; useless.

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

  • adjective Of a garment, having no sleeves.
  • adjective obsolete Wanting a cover, pretext, or palliation; unreasonable; profitless; useless.

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

  • adjective having no sleeves
  • adjective unproductive of success

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

sleeve +‎ -less

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Examples

  • Just as the train pulled out of the station, two really buff young men in what I call sleeveless undershirts and the younger generation calls "wife beaters" turned on a boom box and began dancing and performing acrobatics as the train roared past the local stations.

    Stephanie Gertler: The Masses 2009

  • Just as the train pulled out of the station, two really buff young men in what I call sleeveless undershirts and the younger generation calls "wife beaters" turned on a boom box and began dancing and performing acrobatics as the train roared past the local stations.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com 2009

  • Just as the train pulled out of the station, two really buff young men in what I call sleeveless undershirts and the younger generation calls "wife beaters" turned on a boom box and began dancing and performing acrobatics as the train roared past the local stations.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com 2009

  • Some Afghan websites published photographs purportedly showing alcohol and dancing women in sleeveless dresses at an embassy party during the abstemious Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

    Recalled Afghan Ambassador Not Going Back, Criticizes Karzai And Obama The Huffington Post News Team 2010

  • Some Afghan websites published photographs purportedly showing alcohol and dancing women in sleeveless dresses at an embassy party during the abstemious Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

    Recalled Afghan Ambassador Not Going Back, Criticizes Karzai And Obama Dan Froomkin 2010

  • Some Afghan websites published photographs purportedly showing alcohol and dancing women in sleeveless dresses at an embassy party during the abstemious Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

    Recalled Afghan Ambassador Not Going Back, Criticizes Karzai And Obama The Huffington Post News Team 2010

  • I order my belle-mère, who responds with one of the many moxey mouthing offs that she carries up her stubborn sleeve, even in sleeveless summertime:

    troisième age - French Word-A-Day 2010

  • A cluster of giggling youths dressed in short, sleeveless tunics scurried into the hall.

    Spirit Gate 2006

  • I don’t think I would have begun this training regimen had I not been bombarded with constant images of Michelle Obama in sleeveless dresses and blouses waving at the adoring voters who visit her husband’s rallies.

    In Training | The Stiletto Gang The Stiletto Gang 2008

  • He's not wearing anything sleeveless, which is good for him.

    CNN Transcript Aug 6, 2003 2003

Comments

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  • A pyramid word.

    May 23, 2008

  • (adjective) - As the meaning of the expression, "to sleeve a two," appears plainly to be to twist or fold silk thread so subtle that it is difficult to untwist it, sleeveless then should seem to mean "that which cannot be unfolded or explained." --John Brand's Observations on Popular Antiquities, 1813

    April 23, 2018