backboneless
adjEtymology From backbone + -less.
1
Literally Without a backbone; invertebrate.
- Once, like a drunken man, I lurched forward, and fell upon my knees. Such was my backboneless state that for some seconds I remained where I was, half disposed to let things slide, accept the good the gods had sent me, and make a night of it just there.1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
2
Figuratively Cowardly, spineless.
- Derived terms
- backbonelessness