weaponless

Lacking a weapon.

Adjective

  1. Lacking a weapon.
    • Summerlee was weaponless, but I was emptying my magazine as quick as I could fire, and on the further flank we heard the continuous cracking of our companion's rifles. - 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […],...

    Synonyms: unarmed

Origin

From Middle English wepenles, from Old English wǣpenlēas, from Proto-Germanic *wēpnalausaz, equivalent to weapon + -less. Cognate with Saterland Frisian woapenloos (“weaponless”), Dutch wapenloos (“weaponless”), German waffenlos (“weaponless”), Danish våbenløs (“weaponless”), Swedish vapenlös (“weaponless”), Icelandic vopnlaus (“weaponless”).

Derived

weaponlessness