a. [f. FANG sb. + -LESS.] a. Without fangs, toothless. b. Of a tooth: Having no fang or root.
a. 1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. i. 218.
| So that his power, like to a Fanglesse Lion, | |
| May offer, but not hold. |
1823. Blackw. Mag., XIV., July, 81. We not look on it as a sort of fangless viper, which we allow to crawl about, permitting ourselves to smile now and then, if any of its slimy contortions please the fancy of the moment, knowing that it can do no hurt.
1868. Geo. Eliot, Sp. Gipsy, IV. 302.
| As if a lion in fangless infancy | |
| Learned love of creatures that with fatal growth | |
| It scents as natural prey, and grasps and tears, | |
| Yet with heart-hunger yearns for, missing them. |
fig. 1790. J. Williams, Shrove Tuesday (1794), 29.
| Rebellion fangless grinn’d on Brunswick’s pride, | |
| Tho’ now it stands, like states, without a head. |
1795. Jemima, II. 198. I should dread the consequence of his iniquity even in that almost fangless situation.
1887. Swinburne, Locrine, IV. i. 105.
| So shall fear, mistrust, and jealous hate | |
| Lie foodless, if not fangless. |
b. 1185–6. R. B. Todd, The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, I. 114/2. The mouth … furnished with … fangless … teeth.
