harmless
adjUK /ˈhɑːmləs/ · US /ˈhɑɹmləs/
Etymology From Middle English harmles, from Old English *hearmlēas, from Proto-Germanic *harmalausaz (“without harm; harmless”), equivalent to harm + -less. Cognate with German harmlos (“harmless”), Danish harmløs (“harlmess”), Swedish harmlös (“harmless”).
1
Incapable of causing harm or danger; safe.
- Near-synonyms: benign, innocuous, innocent, undamaging, nonthreatening, unthreatening
- This snake looks nearly the same as its poisonous cousin but is harmless.
2
Not intended to harm; inoffensive.
- His humor can be annoying but is harmless.
- The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite.[…]Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
3
Obsolete Unharmed.
- Derived terms
- harmlessly, harmlessness, hold harmless, save harmless