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powerless

adj
/ˈpaʊɚləs/US/ˈpaʊələs/UK

Etymology

From Middle English pouerles, powerles, equivalent to power + -less.

  1. inherited from pouerles

Definitions

  1. Lacking sufficient power or strength.

    • In Sweden, as we saw, the mistletoe which is gathered on Midsummer Eve is attached to the ceiling of the house, the horse's stall or the cow's crib, in the belief that this renders the Troll powerless to injure man and beast.
    • “Imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate.”
    • It is said that his right arm had grown powerless from having been raised so often over the heads of those whom he baptized.

  2. Lacking legal authority.

    • The traffic warden was powerless to stop me driving away.

  3. Without electricity or electrical power.

    • During the storm, the entire neighborhood was left powerless for several hours

The neighborhood

Derived

powerlessly, powerlessness, superpowerless

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at powerless. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01powerless02legal03basis04foundation05stabilizes06stabilize07stable08wing09insect

A definitional loop anchored at powerless. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at powerless

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA