meatlessness

Absence of meat.

Noun

  1. Absence of meat.
    • My soup has the positive constitutive property of being carroty, of having carrots in it; of carrotiness; it has the negative constitutive property of lacking meat, of meatlessness. - 1998, George Englebretsen, Line...
  2. Abstention from meat; vegetarianism.
    • When Hoover's conservating pen / Cut down our steak and sausage ration / With one accord we cried "AMEN," / And meatlessness became the fashion. - 1919, Frank Hunter Potter, The Naval Reserve:
    • But though Mohandas found himself arguing with his friend in defense of meatlessness, he never seriously contemplated breaking the vow. - 1969, Robert Payne, The life and death of Mahatma Gandhi:

Origin

From meatless + -ness.