handholdless

English

Etymology

From handhold +‎ -less.

Adjective

handholdless (not comparable)

1. (Internet slang, 4chan) Usually of a man: having never held hands with a member of the opposite sex.
   • 2019 July 14, Natalie Gil, “Inside The Secret World Of Incels – The Men Who Want To Punish Women”, in Refinery29‎^[1], archived from the original on 20 July 2019:

     We meet James, a "kissless, hugless, handholdless virgin" (or KHHV in incel parlance) from County Down, Northern Ireland, who says he's an incel because his insecurities, anxiety, mental health problems and troubled upbringing stood in the way of his ability to form relationships with women.

2. (literally, rare) Lacking a handhold ("a projection that one may hold onto for support").
   • 2007, Greer K. Chesher, Zion Canyon: A Storied Land, Tucson, A.Z.: University of Arizona Press, →ISBN, page 37:

     One false move and I'm down the slope on a mudslide, a gangly pebble in a debris flow, over a short, straight, handholdless twenty-foot drop into the flood, and whisked away into nothingness.

Derived terms

• KHHV
• KHV