wifeless

English

Alternative forms

• (dated) wiveless, (obsolete) wyueles

Etymology

From Middle English wyfles, wifles, possibly from Old English wīflēas (“wifeless”), equivalent to wife +‎ -less.

Adjective

wifeless (not comparable)

1. Having no wife; unmarried or celibate.
   • 1899, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter I, in The Sleeper Awakes‎^[1]:

     I am a lone wolf, a solitary man, wandering through a world in which I have no part. I am wifeless—childless—who is it speaks of the childless as the dead twigs on the tree of life?

2. Without a wife present.
   • 1962, Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire:

     I at once telephoned. The Shades were out, said the cheeky ancillula, an obnoxious little fan who came to cook for them on Sundays and no doubt dreamt of getting the old poet to cuddle her some wifeless day.

Related terms

• wivesless

Translations

having no wife; unmarried

• Gothic: 𐌿𐌽𐌵𐌴𐌽𐌹𐌸𐍃 (unqēniþs)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἀγύναιος (agúnaios)

• Middle English: wyfles
• Polish: bezżenny (pl)