sleeveless
adj/ˈsliːvlɪs/
Etymology From Middle English slevelees, sleveles, from Old English slīeflēas (“sleeveless”), equivalent to sleeve + -less.
1
Business, Clothing, Fashion, Lifestyle, Manufacturing, Textiles Of a garment, having no sleeves.
- She wore a short surcoat of scarlet, cut low around the shoulders, sleeveless, reaching just below her hips, like the tabards worn by medieval heralds. Over it she wore a laced-edged cotta.1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 25:
2
Obsolete Wanting a cover, pretext, or palliation; unreasonable; profitless; useless.
- a sleeveless errand
- might send that Greekish / whore-masterly villain with the sleeve back to the / dissembling luxurious drab of a sleeveless errand.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv], line 8:
1 more example
- 1738-1741, William Warburton, The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated The vexation of a sleeveless errand.
- Derived terms
- sleevelessly, sleevelessness