a. [f. WEAPON sb. + -LESS.] a. Without weapons or a weapon; unarmed.
a. 1000. in Napier, O. E. Glosses, i. 724. Inermes quosque, .i. sine armis, .i. uniuersos, ʓehwylce wæpenlease.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, xxix. 175. Wundor-lic godes gifu þæt þam wæpenleasan menn ne mihton þa wælhreowan mid wæpnum wið-standan.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 181. He sette a lawe for the pes, That non, but he be wepneles, Schal come into the conseil hous.
c. 1430. Lybeaus Disc., 366. Hyt wer greet vylanye To do a knyght to deye Wepeneles yn place.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Mark vi. 6–9. He sent them out weaponlesse, leste that mans aydes shoulde chalenge any thing in this heauenly busynesse.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. v. 14. Soone as the knight she there by her did spy, Standing with emptie hands all weaponlesse.
1641. Earl Monm., trans. Biondi’s Civil Wars, V. 140. The defendants being suffered to depart away weaponlesse.
1671. Milton, Samson, 130. [He] Ran on embattelld Armies clad in Iron, And weaponless himself, Made Arms ridiculous.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, II. 100. Here the poor captives, weaponless and bound, Saw their stern victors draw again the sword.
1820. Byron, Mar. Fal., III. ii. 95. A lone, unguarded, weaponless old man.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., II. III. 399. Take my sword, and leave me weaponless.
1895. Scully, Kafir Stories, 96. Naked and weaponless fugitives from the Tonga and other tribes.
fig. 1629. Rutherford, Let. to Mar. M‘Naught, 17 Nov., Lett. (1891), 45. My Captain, Christ, hath said, I must fight and overcome the world, and with a weak, spoiled, weaponless devil.
1680. C. Nesse, Church Hist., 32. God will not war with a weaponless devil.
b. transf. Of an animal: Without natural means of attack or defence.
1537. Coverdale, Expos. Ps. xxii. A viij b. Loke how lytle a naturall shepe can kepe, gyde, rule, saue or defende it selfe agaynst daunger and mysfortune (for it is a feble and wapenlesse beast).
1644. J. Strickland, Immanuel, 6. Dennes or burroughes where weaponlesse creatures find shelter when they are hunted.
1666. J. Smith, Old Age, 58. That audacious Carper at the works of God (who complained that other Creatures had naturally a defence given, and man only left weaponless).
c. Not containing a weapon.
1863. Thornbury, True as Steel, III. 327. ‘What a poor soldier am I’ said the Ritter … looking down to his weaponless belt.
